Château BEL AIR MARQUIS D'ALIGRE 1976
Château Bel Air-Marquis d´Aligre is located in Soussans, in the town of Margaux in the Bordeaux wine region. In all the classifications of the 17th and 18th centuries, the wine of Château Bel Air-Marquis d'Aligre was considered one of the best Seconds Crus. It was not classified in 1855 because the Marquis d'Aligre, who owned it, reserved it for his friends and therefore did not go through the brokers who developed this classification. However, in 1932 during the first classification of the Crus Bourgeois, it was one of the few to be classified “Grand Cru Exceptionnel” (which brought together the notorious failures of the Classification of 1855) and this mention still appears on its label. The Boyer family has managed the vineyard with rigor for around 50 years. Today, Jean-Pierre Boyer is in charge of the 13 hectares.
BAMA, by its nickname, is an atypical and original wine for the appellation, very different from Bordeaux standards since it is aged only in concrete vats as was the case in the 19th century. The wine is the result of a blend of four classic grape varieties, almost in equal parts: 35% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petit Verdot. Aging varies from 3 to 7 years depending on the vintage, and those that are not up to par are simply not bottled, with the juices sold to the merchants. The result is a medium coloured wine, not very powerful but intensely fragrant and of rare finesse. With its great aging potential, the wine is enriched with very refined evolving tertiary notes. For more recent vintages, decanting for several hours is recommended to allow the wine to reveal its purest expression.
1976 is classified as "Very Good Vintage" in Margaux.
Grape varieties: 35% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petit Verdot
