‘Gourmet dinner Saturday night?’ enquired brother-in-law Beavington by text. ‘I have something VERY special.’ So, on Saturday night we headed over to my sister’s place for dinner.

The special item was a magnum of 1993 Margaux, which he’d purchased in the late-1990s from Justerini for £50 in a bin-end sale. 1993 is a vintage that has a bad reputation, so I wasn’t necessarily expecting great things from this bottle at 20 years of age. But the wine, was, in fact, utterly delicious.

The two of us drank the bottle. It wasn’t hard. And 1993 is the vintage we both got married, so this was a nice way to celebrate, somewhat belatedly.

Chateaux Margaux 1993 Bordeaux, France (magnum)
Lovely graphite, chalk, mineral, spice, blackberry and black cherry nose. The palate is fresh with lovely ripe black fruits, and some grippy structure, as well as notes of gravels, herbs and sweet cherries. It’s showing a little evolution, but in magnum there is no hurry to drink this up. It’s stylish: proper Bordeaux – serious stuff. 94/100

Find this wine with wine-searcher.com