Chateau Durfort-Vivens 2023
We have 5 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
Margaux has a reputation for Merlot-softened perfume, but Durfort-Vivens is one of the most Cabernet-heavy wines in the appellation. The estate's 65 hectares spread across Margaux, Cantenac, Soussans and Arsac, on gravel laid down over three geological terraces by the ancient Garonne. The team has mapped 28 soil families and 92 sub-types within those holdings, and the Cabernet Sauvignon vines take the deep gravels with a sand and clay matrix, where drainage is fast and roots have to dig. Those soils warm quickly and ripen Cabernet fully even in cooler years, then give back structure rather than weight. Margaux's classic floral lift is still here, but it rides on a firmer frame than most of its neighbors. The estate also keeps a conservatory of old Médoc material, including 5,400 ungrafted Muscadelle vines and 325 vines of the near-forgotten Castets.
The Wine
Château Durfort-Vivens 2023 is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Merlot, picked between September 11 and October 4 at 35 hectoliters per hectare. The season opened with a mild, humid winter that set off early, uneven budbreak, then a warm, wet spring evened the vines out, and the long picking window let each parcel come in on its own schedule. Fermentation runs on native yeasts, plot by plot, with 21 days of maceration and daily gentle pump-overs. Aging lasted 18 months, 70% in new oak barrels and 30% in terracotta amphorae, the clay adding oxygen without adding wood flavor. It finished at 13.7% alcohol and pH 3.66. Violet and blackcurrant lead, followed by juicy, almost crunchy dark fruit, crushed stone, and tannin that is firm but ripe through a long finish.
The People
The Durfort de Duras family held Médoc land from the 14th century, and the Vivens name was added to the estate in 1824, a generation after a marriage joined the two families. It was ranked a second growth in 1855. Lucien Lurton bought the property in 1961, and his son Gonzague took charge in 1992 with a stated goal of purity and precision in Margaux terroir. He began converting to biodynamic farming in 2009, and in 2016 Durfort-Vivens became the first Margaux classified growth certified both organic and biodynamic (Demeter). The work now includes compost, plant-based treatments, hedgerows and precision viticulture. Amphorae arrived with the 2018 vintage, and the estate describes its terracotta jar cellar as the largest in the world by volume. Gonzague runs it with his wife Claire Villars-Lurton, owner of Haut-Bages Libéral in Pauillac.
Food Pairing
Pan-seared duck breast with a blackberry and red wine reduction is the first move; the Cabernet tannin handles the rendered fat and the dark fruit meets the sauce. Entrecôte à la bordelaise, with shallots, red wine and a slice of bone marrow, is the regional answer and still the right one. A mushroom risotto with thyme and aged parmesan gives the wine's stony side something savory to work against. Roast chicken with a crackling skin and a pan sauce of garlic and herbs is lighter but works on acid alone. A second growth Margaux built for the cellar, with enough fresh fruit in 2023 to earn a place at a Sunday dinner long before then.
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Red Blend is a catch-all for wines built from more than one red grape, a practice as old as winemaking itself and central to many of the world's most celebrated bottles. Blending lets a producer balance what a single variety cannot deliver alone: structure from one grape, perfume from another, flesh and color from a third. Bordeaux, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rioja, and the old field blends of Portugal's Douro all fall under this umbrella, as do countless wines from growers who care more about the finished wine than about varietal labeling. Expect enormous range in style, from light and herbal to dense and age-worthy, depending entirely on origin and intent.
