įollowing the Bordeaux economic crisis of 1973, the Ginestet family were forced to sell Château Margaux.

In 1965, Pierre Ginestet controversially declared a new estate policy that the vintage year would only be affixed to great vintages, while selling the wine of lesser years as non-vintage wine, like the customary practice of Champagne. Large portions of shares in the estate were bought by the Bordeaux wine merchant Fernand Ginestet (then owner of the adjacent Château Lascombes) in 1925, and the family share was gradually increased to allow his son Pierre Ginestet to take complete ownership in 1949. On 17 August 1835, Margaux was bought by the Spanish magnate Alejandro María Aguado, 1st Marquess of Marismas del Guadalquivir, who had amassed a vast fortune as a banker.

The estate's old château was torn down and completely rebuilt when Douat commissioned one of Bordeaux' foremost architects, Louis Combes, to create the buildings in the First Empire style, the mansion for the Marquis to move into by 1812. Briefly rescued by Laure de Fumel, she was soon forced to sell, and in 1802 the estate was purchased by the Marquis de la Colonilla, Bertrand Douat for 654,000 francs. įollowing the French Revolution, the owner Elie du Barry was executed by guillotine and the estate expropriated, eventually becoming the property of the citizen Miqueau who neglected its care and maintenance. In 1771, wine from the estate became the first claret to be sold at Christie's, and upon visiting Bordeaux in 1787, Thomas Jefferson made note of Château Margaux as one of the 'four vineyards of first quality'. As with many of Médoc's châteaux, the early 18th century saw the wine develop from a pale watery drink that faded within only a few years, to the dark, complex liquid that has been stored in cellars ever since, and a transformation was largely due to an estate manager named Berlon, who revolutionised techniques of wine-making by introducing novel ideas such as banning harvesting in the early morning to avoid dew-covered grapes and subsequently dilution, and acknowledged the importance of soil quality in the various terroir found on the estate. īy the beginning of the 18th century, the estate comprised 265 hectares (650 acres) with a third devoted to viticulture, which is nearly identical to the modern layout. The lineage of ownership was to continue in a relatively direct path from the Lestonnacs, though through the female side, with proprietors' names such as d'Aulède, Fumel, d'Hargicourt, including an alliance of marriage with the Pontac family of Château Haut-Brion in 1654, which became crucial to the inclusion of Château Margaux among the four first growths. The estate has been occupied since at least the 12th century, with the site occupied by a fortified castle known as Lamothe or La Mothe (from motte, a small rise in the land), and wine under names such as 'Margou' and 'Margous' was known in the 15th century, but it was with the arrival of the Lestonnac family in the 16th century that wine production became of particular importance, and in the 1570s Pierre de Lestonnac expanded the property and cleared many of the grain fields to make way for vines. Château Margaux presentation card dated 1931, demonstrating the designs of the early 20th century, the label, cork, case and capsule markings

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