Château Montrose - Saint-Estèphe
98 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
95 points - The Wine Advocate
97 points - The Wine Advocate
93 points - The Wine Advocate
94 points - The Wine Advocate
98 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
94 points - The Wine Advocate
98 points - The Wine Advocate
98 points - The Wine Advocate
94 points - The Wine Advocate
96 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
96 points - The Wine Advocate
96 points - The Wine Advocate
97 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
Château Montrose - Saint-Estèphe
98 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
95 points - The Wine Advocate
97 points - The Wine Advocate
93 points - The Wine Advocate
94 points - The Wine Advocate
98 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
94 points - The Wine Advocate
98 points - The Wine Advocate
98 points - The Wine Advocate
94 points - The Wine Advocate
96 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
96 points - The Wine Advocate
96 points - The Wine Advocate
97 points - The Wine Advocate
100 points - The Wine Advocate
Regular price£11500
£115.00
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Composed of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and a 1% splash of Petit Verdot, the 2017 Montrose wine was run off into 60% new and 40% one-year old barrels where it was aged for 18 months.
The grand vin represented 37% of the estate’s total production. Deep garnet-purple in colour, the nose takes some time to unfurl before revealing an impressively flamboyant core of black cherry preserves, warm cassis, and baked plums with hints of red currant jelly, dark chocolate, liquorice, cardamom and chargrill plus a gentle waft of candied violets.
Medium to full-bodied, the palate has fantastic intensity with a very elegant, modest weight, featuring super-ripe, finely grained tannins and tons of freshness to lift and show-off a stunning array of gorgeous black fruit and fragrant sparks, finishing very long and refined. This is an incredibly classy, poised, and sophisticated Montrose!
One of the greatest wines in this vertical tasting, the 2016 Montrose unwinds in the glass with a deep bouquet of cassis, wild berries, pencil shavings, violets and burning embers. Full-bodied, deep and complete, it's velvety and seamless, with a layered core of vibrant fruit, sweet tannins and a long, resonant finish. At 13.3% alcohol, this unerringly precise, incipiently complex Montrose is the purist's choice.
The deep garnet-purple colored 2015 Montrose opens with broody black fruits, menthol and anise notes with a core of cassis, blueberries and mulberries plus a touch of cedar chest. The medium-bodied mouth is firm and chewy with a good core of muscular fruit and a long, earthy finish.
The brilliant 2014 Montrose is the fruit of a harvest that stretched out for almost a month, ending on October 17. One of the wines of the vintage, it opens in the glass with aromas of cassis and plums mingled with burning embers, liquorice, sweet loamy soil and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's concentrated and tightly wound, with sweet tannins and a long, penetrating finish.
The 2012 Montrose is a blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot picked between 24 September and 20 October. It underwent a particularly long maceration period between 26 and 28 days. It offers more fruit intensity than the 2011 Montrose with blackberry, raspberry and bilberry scents, quite backward and primal yet well defined.
The aromatics almost mock you because returning after ten minutes, there are glimpses of underlying dried herb and mineral notes. The palate is medium-bodied, intense and very focused, clearly with more depth and sinew than the 2011, yet displaying impressive precision and energy on the finish, which bodes well for the long-term.
Somewhat lost in the shadow of the 2010 and 2009 duo, the 2011 Montrose is a somewhat firm, old-school wine, but it has plenty of depth and character and represents a good value for readers prepared to be patient. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of cassis, sweet berries, plums and licorice complemented by hints of loamy soil, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and muscular, with good depth at the core and a long, structured finish.
One of the most youthful and powerful wines in this tasting is the 2010 Montrose, a year when only 52% of the estate's production went into the grand vin. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of crème de cassis, cigar wrapper, black truffle and loamy soil, it's full-bodied, deep and layered, with a rich core of concentrated fruit that's framed by a muscular tannic chassis. Some 2010s are beginning to show their cards, but this Montrose will still require patience.
A brilliant wine that stands out as one of the high points of the vintage, the 2009 Montrose unwinds in the glass with a rich and incipiently complex bouquet of dark berries, cigar wrapper and loamy soil, framed by a deftly judged touch of new oak. Full-bodied, broad, and enveloping, it's a velvety, layered and impressively dynamic wine that's deep and concentrated, exhibiting terrific balance and a long, resonant finish.
The 2008 Montrose is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot picked between 29 September and 15 October. It has a far superior bouquet compared to the underperforming 2006 with black fruit, minerals, fern and briary. It is very composed, almost understated, yet clearly with great potential. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannin, a fine line of acidity, powerful for the finish but with impressive mineralité and tension on the persistence finish. It is quite an audacious 2008 and one of the finest wines of the vintage.
The 2005 Montrose continues to show brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with notes of blackcurrant, red fruits, loamy soil, black truffles and cigar ash. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's still brooding and tannic, with lively acids and an imposing chassis of structuring—and artery-cleansing—extract. Still an adolescent, it's one of the last unrepentantly old-school vintages of Montrose, and Médoc purists couldn't own enough. While this remains a very youthful wine, it is now apparent that the 2005 will, at maturity, surpass the 1989 and 1990.
The 2003 Montrose was served blind in Bordeaux on two occasions. Picked between 11 to 26 September, it is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. It remains one of the outstanding wines of a very black and white vintage. Without knowledge of the vintage, I was hesitant to suggest 2003, because though there is clearly fruit intensity locked up inside this Saint Estèphe, it is counterbalanced by the estate's trademark masculinity and austerity. So both on the nose and the palate it reaches this happy medium: pure blackberry, graphite and roasted herbs on the nose, perhaps even more elegant than I have observed on previous bottles. The palate is medium-bodied rather than full bodied with sturdy tannins couched in layers of seamless blackberry and cassis fruit, offset by scents of tobacco and graphite. As usual it has immense length and depth, a Montrose that is really just a few chapters into what is sure to be a longer "book" than many other 2003s. It is not a perfect Montrose, but a couple of hairs' breadth away. Tasted February 2017.
Tasted at the vertical in London, the question was whether the 2000 Montrose would be paradigmatic of a vintage whereby the wines have remained sullen and broody in their youth. On this occasion, to my surprise I found it more open than the 2005 (which admittedly is not saying that it's open for business!). It is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot picked from 22 September to 7 October. I afforded it a couple of hours in the glass and it responded with plenty of pure ripe blackberry and raspberry fruit, hints of cold slate and even charcoal emerging with time. The palate is not as complex as the aforementioned 2005, yet there is wonderful backbone and focus; towards the finish there is a sense of suppleness and refinement that might make this absolutely delicious in 5-7 years' time. Perhaps the 2000 has been usurped by subsequent releases in 2005, 2009 and 2010, but do not be surprised if it evolves into a regal Montrose. Tasted June 2016.
It is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot picked from 22 September to 7 October. I afforded it a couple of hours in the glass, and it responded with plenty of pure ripe blackberry and raspberry fruit, hints of cold slate and even charcoal emerging with time.
The palate is not as complex as the aforementioned 2005, yet there is wonderful backbone and focus; towards the finish there is a sense of suppleness and refinement that might make this absolutely delicious in 5-7 years' time. Perhaps the 2000 has been usurped by subsequent releases in 2005, 2009 and 2010, but do not be surprised if it evolves into a regal Montrose.
It shows approximately the same evolution as the 1989 in bottle, but unsurprisingly showed less bricking in magnum format. The bouquet is cut from a different cloth to the 1989 and attests to that warm vintage: hickory, clove, undergrowth and wild fennel, later garrigue-like scents, and terracotta, the latter two more pronounced on the bottle format compared to the youthful magnum. The palate is full-bodied and powerful, yet the balance is perfect, a ballerina-like poise with the structure of the Forth Bridge.
It is a multi-layered Montrose that offers enormous length, fresh and vibrant with the magnum demonstrating tangible minerality and tension as it fans out on the crescendo of a finish—a fanfare for Saint Estèphe in all its glory. Improving all the time in the glass, this example of 1990 Montrose is a privilege to behold. One can speculate whether larger formats are a "safer bet" in terms of experiencing this behemoth without any Brettanomyces. Perhaps. However, if you do come across the 1990 Montrose like this, you are in the presence of a king.
The 1989 Montrose can be a brilliant wine, but it's also subject to notable bottle variation. I drank this wine twice in 2021: the first was the best bottle of some two dozen I have encountered over the last decade, and the second (from a cold English cellar where it had been stored since release) was the worst. At its best, this is a remarkably rich, lavish Montrose, bursting with aromas of ripe berry fruit, cigar box, black truffles and grilled meats, delivering a full-bodied, voluptuous, low-acid profile on the palate. When the Brettanomyces dominates, the wine's aromas are marred by medicinal, band aid-like aromas and the finish is a touch dried out.
A hulking monster of power and extraction, the 2018 Montrose offers up rich aromas of mulberries, cherries, dark chocolate and violets. Full-bodied, broad and ample, with a textural attack that segues into a sweet core of fruit framed by ripe but chewy tannins, it's a muscular, dense Montrose with structure to burn, concluding with a lingering, floral finish. While its over 14.5% alcohol is impressively well integrated, Médoc purists will want to gravitate toward the 2016 rather than the 2018.
As I wrote last year, the 2019 Montrose is performing very well, wafting from the glass with a dramatic, perfumed bouquet of wild berries and cassis mingled with notions of lilac, violets, pencil shavings and licorice, framed by nicely integrated new oak. Full-bodied, layered and seamless, it's deep and multidimensional, with lively acids, beautifully refined tannins and a long, resonant finish. While analytically it's almost as powerful as the 2018, the 2019 is much more suave, sensual and polished, its tannic structure and alcohol more harmoniously integrated into its sweet core of fruit.
Surpassing the 2019 and rivaling the 2016 as this estate's finest vintage of the last few decades, the 2020 Montrose is a monument in the making. Wafting from the glass with aromas of violets, dark berries, licorice, loamy soil, black truffle and subtle spices, it's full-bodied, deep and layered, with a seamless, elegantly muscular profile, terrific purity and energy, beautifully powdery tannins and a long, resonant finish. It checks in at 13.7% alcohol, the same as the superb 2009, but it is even deeper, more vibrant and more complex than the 2009.
Type: |
Red |
Country: |
France |
Region: |
Bordeaux |
Appellation: |
Saint-Estèphe |
Producer: |
Château Montrose |
Grapes/Blend: |
Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot |
Serving temp: |
16° - 18° C |
ABV: |
13% |
Pairing Sugesstions: |
Beef, Lamb, Venison, Duck, Salads, Mushrooms, Roasted Root Vegetables, Hard Cheeses, Blue Cheese, Charcuterie and Cured Meats, Nuts and Seeds, Chocolate |
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