Château Margaux 1925

About Château Margaux 1925

Château Margaux 1925 is a red Premier Grand Cru Classé from Margaux in Bordeaux, 750 ml, château-bottled and with a fill level of high mid shoulder. A 100-year-old wine that collectors seek out today as a historic piece from the Roaring Twenties.

Château Margaux 1925: a First Growth from the Roaring Twenties

1925 was a year of new beginnings. Paris hosted the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, which later gave Art Deco its name, while the great Bordeaux estates were rebuilding after phylloxera and the First World War. Château Margaux already stood at the top of the Médoc: the 1855 classification had placed it among only four First Growths. The label of this bottle carries the title Premier Grand Cru Classé, still the highest rank in that hierarchy. Anyone looking to buy Château Margaux from the 1920s today will find such bottles only occasionally, and mostly at auction.

An estate in transition

Château Margaux 1925 comes from a period when the ownership of the estate changed fundamentally. The banker Pillet-Will had bought the property in 1879 and replanted the vineyards after the phylloxera crisis. During the 1920s, Château Margaux passed from his heirs to a company of shareholders. Among them, at a later stage, was the Bordeaux wine merchant Fernand Ginestet, whose family took full ownership around 1950 and ran the estate for decades. A bottle from these transitional years is therefore also a piece of the business history of one of the most famous wine estates in the world.

Château bottling: the mark of a new era

With the 1924 vintage, the First Growths decided for the first time to bottle their entire crop at the château instead of selling the wine in barrel to merchants in Bordeaux, London or Paris. The 1925 vintage is therefore among the first to leave the estate fully château-bottled. The label shows this with the red overprint “Mis en bouteille au Château”, while the capsule is embossed with the château motif and the words “Grand Vin Château Margaux”. For collectors, a château-bottled First Growth is a key criterion, because origin and bottling are clearly tied to the estate. Merchant bottlings from earlier decades are often harder to place and harder to value.

The 1925 vintage in Bordeaux

The 1925 vintage sits between the well-regarded 1924 and the important 1926. The year was wet in Bordeaux, the harvest was very large, and many grapes did not reach full ripeness. Château Margaux itself describes the vintage on its website as a difficult one. Accordingly, bottles such as Château Margaux 1925 rarely appear on the market or in auction catalogues today. Collectors building a vertical of the top Médoc estates, or aiming to cover the interwar years without gaps, still need the 1925 vintage, because the weaker years are often the missing links in a collection.

The bottle in detail

The bottle of Château Margaux 1925 carries the classic label of its time, with an engraving of the château, the words Grand Vin, the year and the designation Premier Grand Cru Classé. “France” and the trademark note “Déposé” appear along the lower edge. As is typical of a château-bottled wine of this era, the original red capsule is embossed on top with the château motif, and the dark green glass has no back label. Traces of more than a century in the cellar on label, capsule and glass are part of a bottle like this. Full details on fill level, label and capsule are listed under Condition & provenance and shown in the six detail photographs.

Who is Château Margaux 1925 for?

For many collectors, a 100-year-old wine is the centrepiece of a collection. Château Margaux 1925 fits a vertical of the estate, a collection of interwar Premiers Crus, or a gift for an anniversary linked to 1925, such as a company, club or family founded in that year. If you want to buy Château Margaux to close a gap in your collection, this is one of the less frequently offered vintages. As a display piece in a wine library, the bottle tells a chapter of Bordeaux history. As a 100-year-old wine bearing the original château stamp, it is first and foremost a collector's item. As with any rarity, we cannot promise an increase in value; condition, provenance and scarcity remain what determines it.

Buy Château Margaux at wein-sammeln.de

wein-sammeln.de offers Bordeaux exclusively, selected for collectors, connoisseurs and investors. When you buy Château Margaux from us, every bottle is inspected, carefully packed and shipped insured. Alongside Château Margaux 1925 we carry further historic vintages of the estate, including Château Margaux 1906 and Château Margaux 1944, so you can compare and collect a Premier Cru across several decades. A 100-year-old wine like this calls for calm, cool and dark storage at a constant temperature after purchase.

FAQ

Is Château Margaux 1925 château-bottled? Yes. From the 1924 vintage onwards, the First Growths bottled their entire crop at the château. The label carries the red overprint “Mis en bouteille au Château”, and the capsule is embossed with the château motif and “Grand Vin Château Margaux”.

What does a high mid shoulder fill level mean? The wine sits between the upper and the middle part of the bottle’s shoulder. For a bottle more than 100 years old, this is within the usual range. The fill level alone, however, is no reliable guide to the condition of the wine.

Can Château Margaux 1925 still be drunk? No one can guarantee the drinkability of a wine this old. We offer the bottle as a collector’s item; what counts are the documented details on fill level, label and capsule.

How many First Growths were there in 1925? Four: Château Lafite, Château Latour, Château Margaux and Château Haut-Brion. Château Mouton Rothschild was only promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé in 1973.

Why is the 1925 vintage so rare? A bottle only survives a century if it has been well stored over several generations. For the wet, rather weak 1925 vintage, very few bottles reach the market today, and merchant offers are the exception.

How should I store the bottle? Cool at around 12–14 °C, dark, free of vibration and at 60–75 % humidity. Stand the bottle upright for a few days before opening, and draw the old cork with a two-pronged cork puller or a Durand.

Is Château Margaux 1925 a good investment? Historic First Growths are sought-after collector’s items, but we cannot promise any increase in value. The price depends on condition, provenance and the market; this is not investment advice.