A Playful Charmer: Malescot St. Exupéry’s Joyful Twist on Margaux

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Malescot St. Exupéry is the playful charmer of Margaux—a wine that leaps out with juicy red fruit and pure, easy pleasure. While some crus show off their muscle, this one draws you in with its lively, inviting style and a wink of strawberry-chocolate delight. Tasted alongside its peers, Malescot stands out for approachability and balance, making every glass feel a little more joyful and just a little unexpected.

Well-structured and still complex by Cru standard, all bottles open with smoky cassis and new oak. Expect mocha, vanilla, white chocolates, and pure, ripe red and dark fruit. The core is bright, with well-integrated tannins. On the palate, the fruit turns more complex and darker, always round and bursting with strawberries, raspberries, and blackcurrants.

With suitable fruit length in quality Cru, all vintages are easy yet intense. They are tense yet balanced. All bottles suit all occasions. However, if you seek a brooding, labyrinthine Margaux, Malescot St. Exupéry may not be for you. If you want pleasure, precision, and an electric red-fruit signature, it is yours.

Stylistically clean, balanced, and unapologetically fruity. A modern wine sure of itself. This style is supported by the following technical details. Vinification and maturation are temperature-controlled and mostly in new oak, typically around 80% though it varies by vintage, making the wine bold and powerful. All vintages undergo malolactic fermentation in the barrel, depending on the vintage. They are aged on lees with stirring, adding intensity, complexity, and texture. The wine spends 13–14 months ageing in barrels before being racked without fining or filtration. This process gives its characteristic creaminess on the mid-palate. ABV is just right; almost all vintages are at 13.5%, making this medium-bodied wine easier to drink without losing intensity. All vintages are 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Petit Verdot. The varied grapes create greater complexity over time. The mineral finish comes from the soil: gravel overlying chalk or marl, sloping towards the Gironde. Fruit is picked into trays to prevent bruising and preserve freshness.

Each vintage has peculiarities of its own.

2011 is lean and slightly austere, but truly elegant in its restraint; patience is rewarded.

2013 is a vintage of quiet refinement. It is mid-weight, with gentle tannins, red cherry and violet aromatics, and a finish of surprising harmony. It is precisely this exotic, un-Left-Bank-like red fruit — so unlike the expected macho Margaux — that is the greatest paradoxical attraction of Malescot. Think Rowntree's Pastilles: ripe fruit condensed into vivid, jewel-bright flavours — blackcurrant, strawberry, cranberry, lemon. Each is distinct and singing. Pair it with Japanese strawberry chocolate, and you are in a different kind of heaven.

2015 Magnum is maturing with even more fruit, as most would say. It shows an abundance of plush, ripened blackcurrant and cherry fruit, with added depth and richness as it evolves in large format. The fruit is generous, mouth-filling, and layered, promising further complexity with time.

2017 is tightly wound, mineral-driven, with focused fruit and a dry finish—still finding its voice.

Across the shown vintages, one truth holds: Malescot St. Exupéry seduces with pleasure, not power or structure. Bright, condensed, pastille-pure red fruit surprises, then lingers. From the lean austerity of 2011 to the plush generosity of 2015, from the quiet refinement of 2013 to the mineral tension of 2017, each bottle is unmistakably itself and unmistakably Malescot. This Margaux asks not to be decoded—only enjoyed.