Château Margaux 2015 | A Special Bottle Created Only for 2015

2026.08.31

For the first time in its history, Château Margaux replaced its traditional paper label with a bottle design created for a single vintage. That vintage was 2015.

Gold and grey silkscreen printing is applied directly to the glass.

The design depicts the château completed in 1815 alongside the new winery designed by Norman Foster.

2015 marked the 200th anniversary of the château building, as well as the completion of this new winemaking facility.

It also became the final vintage overseen by Paul Pontallier, who had shaped the wines of Château Margaux for more than three decades.

At the bottom of the bottle appear the words:

“Hommage à Paul Pontallier.”

The significance of Château Margaux 2015 lies not only in the quality of the wine. Several defining moments in the estate’s history came together in the same vintage.

Only 35% of the harvest became the Grand Vin

Just 35% of the total harvest was selected for Château Margaux 2015.

The estate described this as an exceptionally strict selection, even for a vintage of such high quality.

The final blend was:

87% Cabernet Sauvignon
8% Merlot
3% Cabernet Franc
2% Petit Verdot

Cabernet Sauvignon forms the clear backbone of the wine.

Château Margaux noted that the 2015 Cabernet combined the concentration and finesse expected of the estate with an unusual degree of power.

Rather than producing more wine simply because the vintage was excellent, the estate chose to be even more selective.

The quality of 2015 was shaped not only by the year itself, but by what Château Margaux chose not to include.

Heat, drought — and rain at exactly the right time

The 2015 growing season began dry, followed by hot and increasingly arid conditions through June and July.

Water stress became a concern.

Then rain arrived in August at a crucial moment, helping the vines continue their ripening cycle.

September returned to dry conditions, with warm days and cooler nights allowing sugar levels to rise while preserving acidity and giving the tannins time to mature.

The red grapes were harvested between 18 September and 6 October.

The estate recorded small berries with thick skins and particularly high tannin concentrations.

When describing the character of 2015, Château Margaux itself drew comparisons with 2005, 2009 and 2010 — three celebrated vintages — while emphasising that 2015 maintained its own distinctly Margaux identity.

A bottle made for 2015 — and 2015 alone

The bottle is immediately different from a conventional Château Margaux release.

Instead of a paper label, the design is silkscreened directly onto the glass.

It was the first time Château Margaux had created a dedicated bottle for a single vintage.

Three events are represented in that design:

The 200th anniversary of the château building, completed in 1815.

The completion of the new winery designed by Norman Foster.

And a tribute to Paul Pontallier.

This was not simply a decorative limited edition.

The bottle was created to preserve the events that defined Château Margaux in 2015.

Paul Pontallier’s final vintage

Paul Pontallier joined Château Margaux in 1983.

Over the following decades, he became one of the central figures behind the estate’s winemaking and development.

The 2015 vintage would be the last he oversaw.

Pontallier died in March 2016.

Château Margaux itself now explicitly describes 2015 as the final vintage supervised by Paul Pontallier.

The inscription “Hommage à Paul Pontallier” therefore carries particular weight.

His name appears on the final vintage he helped create after more than three decades at the estate.

The bottle was exceptional — but so was the wine

Château Margaux 2015 was not celebrated solely because of its historical context.

The wine itself received extraordinary critical acclaim, including 100 points from Decanter and 99 points from Wine Spectator.

One of its defining qualities is the combination of concentration and power with the perfume and finesse traditionally associated with Château Margaux.

87% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Only 35% of the harvest selected.

A structure capable of supporting decades of development.

The commemorative bottle would be notable on its own.

But what makes 2015 particularly important is that an exceptional moment in the estate’s history coincided with an exceptional wine.

What is preserved in the 2015 vintage

Two hundred years since the completion of the château.

A new winery.

Paul Pontallier’s final vintage.

And a Grand Vin made from just 35% of the harvest.

It is rare for so many significant events to converge in a single year.

That is why Château Margaux created a bottle specifically for 2015.

Long after the wine itself has been enjoyed, the bottle still preserves the memory of that year.

Château Margaux 2015 is therefore more than a celebrated Bordeaux vintage.

It is a bottle in which the wine and the history of the estate became inseparable.