Château Margaux is one of Bordeaux’s most famous wine estates, located just east of Margaux itself in the Médoc. Along with Lafite, Latour and Haut-Brion, it was rated as a first growth in the original 1855 Bordeaux Classification of the Médoc. Generally, Margaux is considered as the most elegant of the first growths, and is consistently one of the most expensive wines in the world.

La Mothe de Margaux existed as a distinct property in the 12th Century, and was set up as a wine estate in the 1570s, as farmers in the Médoc began to abandon cereal crops in favor of vines. In 1705, the London Gazette advertised the first auction of 230 barrels of “Margose”, and, in 1787, Thomas Jefferson made his famous visit to Bordeaux and identified Margaux as one of the “four vineyards of first quality”. By 1800, the estate occupied 265 hectares (655 acres) with a third planted to vines, which remains the situation today. The iconic neo-palladian château, nicknamed “The Versailles of the Médoc”, was built in the early 1800s to match the reputation of the vineyard.