Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: An airy texture despite the tannic concentration; indescribably elegant and pure nose, with floral notes that can only be found here. Ultra-aristocratic Cabernet tannins; another chef d’oeuvre but not as easily noted at this stage as the 2009. 19/19.5

John Gilman: The Château Margaux is one of the lowest-alcohol wines to be found in Bordeaux this vintage. Not surprisingly, the grand vin has a higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon this year than is customary, since even on the Left Bank, the Merlot in 2010 was very ripe indeed. The 2010 Margaux is a very good wine, but somehow I had expected just a bit more grandiosity in this vintage, and at least at this early stage, it seems to be a step behind the 2009. The bouquet is deep, closed, and nascently complex, as it wafts from the glass in a blend of black cherries, cassis, tobacco leaf, lovely minerality, smoke, and a refined base of new wood. On the palate, the wine is deep, full-bodied, and quite solid at the core, with plenty of firm tannins, good acids, and fine length and grip on the slightly dry finish. This is a very well-made wine by any stretch of the imagination, but in terms of the extremely high standards of Château Margaux, it will need to develop a fair bit more character as it evolves with bottle age to rank as one of the great recent vintages here. I cannot imagine it blossoming before it has spent at least 15 years in the cellar, and 2010 should prove to be an extremely long-lived vintage for the estate. 2025–2100. 17.5/18

Michael Schuster: A heady presence of freshly ripe, sweet black fruit, and fresh, almost smoky aromas; richly constituted, perfectly balanced, so gently fresh, so fine in its firm tannins; an impression of density and mass without weight, sweet and pure and (despite the tannin index) with a tannin texture so fine as to be almost imperceptible; an effortlessly rich yet effortlessly fresh sweetness of taste alongside a mouth-coating fragrance. As prolonged to finish as it is to taste. A very Burgundian style: power and delicacy, density and lightness, and extraordinary transparency. The perfect image of great quintessential Margaux. 1953 (in particular) and 1959 are the closest I can think of in terms of style and quality. Magnificent; certainly one of the wines of a (largely) very great vintage. It doesn’t feel as though it will close up either… The 2009 and 2010 will make a quite magnificent pair. Absolutely beguiling. 2025–55+. 20