The 2016 Château d'Issan is a rich, well-structured Margaux with black fruit, chocolate mint, and cigar box flavors. It has fine-grained tannins and a long, savory finish. Best after 2025, it shows excellent balance and aging potential. The 2016 vintage benefited from ideal weather, producing a wine that will age gracefully for decades.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 96
Published: Feb 3, 2019

The brightness and precision already comes through on the nose with floral, blackcurrant character. Full-bodied and very tight and creamy with polished tannins that last for minutes. Warm and intense. Needs four to five years to show all it has, yet already a beauty. 

Decanter | D 95
Published: Apr 18, 2022
Drink: 2025-2045

Tasted over two days, and although the attack is supple, with fruit and light notes of espresso, the palate is somewhat low key in its expression of red and black fruit with overtones of spice. One notices high toned acidity, and I suspect that the wine has entered a youthful, 'closed-in' phase. What cannot be denied: fine grained tannin and impressive length on a finish marked by freshness and tonicity. Don't touch before 2025 at least, however.

Grapes: 64% Cabernet Sauvignon 36% Merlot

The Wine Advocate | RP 94+
Published: Nov 30, 2018
Drink: 2019-2037

The 2016 D'Issan is blended of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon and 36% Merlot, aged in 50% new and 50% one-year-old French oak for 18 months. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it has vibrant black cherries and blackcurrants notes with chocolate mint, beef drippings, black olives and cigar box. Medium-bodied with a well-sustained, intensely flavored mid-palate, it has a rock-solid, grainy frame and long savory finish. 10,500 cases produced. 

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 16.5
Published: Feb 6, 2020
Drink: 2025-2040

Tasted blind. Very full and rich on the nose and then structure and lots of tannin underneath. Rather attractive whole.

Chateau-issan.com

Château d’Issan is a Third Growth of the 1855 Imperial Classification. The wine is made from the old vines in the Château d’Issan enclosure in the middle of the Margaux appellation. The soil here is mainly made up of surface gravel on top of a clay subsoil, which contributes to optimal ripeness and freshness in our two grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Château d’Issan expresses the exquisite bouquet so characteristic of Margaux, and stands out with its suppleness, subtlety, elegance and long keeping potential that come from its unique terroir. Château d’Issan is aged in barrels for 16 to 18 months, half of which are new. Annual production is around 100,000 bottles.

An unparalleled summer
The Medoc vineyards “enjoyed” continuous rain from 1st January to the beginning of June! The drainage work carried out in 1995 on the Chateau d’Issan estate, makes it possible to regulate the amount of water irrigating each plot. The vines’ roots reach down very deep, which makes their water supply regular. The rain stopped in the first week of June and flowering was uniform and abundant.
Lasting sunshine began from 20th June onwards. The whole summer was dry and hot until 13th September, when heaven-sent rain brought much-needed water to the vines. 33 mm of rainfall covered the estate evenly, waking up the vines and kick-starting the ripening process.

The strength of the Château d’Issan estate 
85% of the vines that grow here are more than 25 years old. We noticed no stress from lack of water and the vines’ growth cycle was uninterrupted. Thanks to the water reserves contained in the soil that had built up during the first half of the year, the vineyard was ready for harvesting to start with no precipitation. The Indian summer that followed, the reliability of the weather forecasts and the substantial variation between daytime and night temperatures throughout September, peaking at a difference of 20°C, all enabled the grape tannins to ripen slowly step by step.

The harvest was very similar to that of 2010, but volumes were higher!
In 2016, picking began on 29th September and finished on 19th October.
Yields were good, mainly as a result of good weather and short, even flowering.
When the fruit was tasted on the vines, from the outset the vintage was recognised to be very promising without the grapes appearing overripe from the summer heat and drought.
2016 is a vintage with outstanding balance.