Chateau Montrose

We usually struggle with tasting Montrose this early on in its life. It’s not only because it is the most Northerly “Super Second” and really tends to need that shot of Indian Summer to finish it off, but you also try a couple of their other wines first which are ok, but very firm, structured, tannic and ungenerous affairs and when you come to taste La Dame and the Grand Vin your mouth is coated with high levels of tannin and acidity.

However, this year, the Grand Vin brushes away everything in its path with its rich, multidimensional, complex, and to be honest, glorious weight, power and fruit. I think the team were a little split on this, but this Montrose for me is more subtle and refined, and consequently far more rewarding than the dynamic duo of 2009/2010. It may also surprise us with a reasonably affordable price too. Fabulous.
Simon Staples, Asia Wine Director

Known as the Latour of St Estèphe for its power and longevity, this estate is an excellent source of top Claret. With 73% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, this exhibits beautifully-balanced tannins and precise, sweet fruit. It is a classic Montrose and a delicious example of Bordeaux at its best. Decant this wine at least an hour before drinking to unleash its glorious potential. Drink until 2025.

In 2006 the wine is epitomised by balance and finesse. It has enormous tannins but not only are they very fine, they are serenely cloaked in dense crushed blackberry fruit, earthy spice and minerally coffee hints. The wine's cool classic edge merely serves to further reinforce its silky, feminine style - well for a St Estèphe anyway. Very good indeed.

As big as ever, Montrose has made a real tour de force in 2005, although it is very much an iron fist in a velvet glove. It is a dense wine with enormous tannins, but the latter are cloaked by sweet, concentrated, ripe cassis and plum fruits. It is only on the incredibly long finish (a real feature of the 2005s) that they really reveal themselves, but even then they are very fine. This is not just a brute though, it has great charm and grace. The 65% Cabernet Sauvignon really comes through and helps give the wine that wonderful earthy St Estèphe personality.
Simon Staples, Asia Wine Director

Ch. Montrose’s 2009 exudes intense black fruit aromas whilst the palate is a concentrated ball of dark blackcurrants, mingling with an earthy complexity and wet stone minerality. The fruit is very ripe here but nonetheless there is a beautiful sense of coolness about the wine in comparison to other communes. Very complex, this has a massively high level of incredibly fine tannins that are certainly initially present on the tongue and then, like a will o' the wisp, just disappear, leaving a dark perfume lingering on the palate .

One of the superstars of the vintage, this classic Montrose is not as showy or opulent as the 2010, 2009 or 2003, but it offers a dense purple color followed by gorgeously sweet black raspberry and black currant fruit intermixed with loamy, earthy, forest floor notes, a floral component and a long, full-bodied finish. The 2008 was fashioned from yields of 44 hectoliters per hectare which is slightly less than the 2010's 45 hectoliters per hectare. Forget it for 5-8 years and drink it over the following 20+.
An undeniably great Montrose, after some time in wood, the 2008 should achieve the heights of the 2003, 1990, and 1989... An inky/purple color is accompanied by sweet, pure aromas of black fruits and spice. This full-bodied wine exhibits superb concentration, sweet tannin, and a multilayered, textured, full-bodied mouthfeel with no hard edges. The sweetness of the tannin, the extraordinary purity of fruit, and the intense aromatics suggest a year of great ripeness...This should be a long-lived wine (35 years), yet it will drink surprisingly well at a young age...
Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - Apr-2009

Château Montrose has a lot to live up to after their 2003. This year they felt they have produced 'just' a very good wine, not dissimilar in style to thier 1996. WIth 64% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend this is a powefully structured Montrose.

Opaque and black-red in colour, the nose shows deep bitter chocolate and spicy red berry fruit aromas. The flavours reminded one of thickly textured, fresh savoury fruits and there was a wonderful balance of racy acidity and firm tannins. It is a superb follow-on to the 2003.

Good depth of colour and a tight and compact nose of dark black fruits and eucalyptus. Very generous fruit on the palate accompanied by fine, ripe tannins. A very good finish.

Only 23% of the harvest made it to La Dame de Montrose as 18% of the harvest was declassified. With 75% Merlot (the balance is Cabernet Sauvignon), this is a very juicy wine, although still marked with the expected St Estèphe spice. Yields are low at 38 hl/ha. The exotically-named cellarmaster, Laurent Savovitch-Vuk, is clearly happy with the result but there is a sense of work in progress, in part following the acquisition and incorporation of important vineyards from the neighbouring Ch. Phélan-Ségur. Nonetheless, this is an authentic, positive wine, enhanced by the success of Merlot in 2012.
Mark Pardoe MW, Wine Buying Director

Known as the Latour of St Estphe for its dense powerful style and ageing potential, Montrose has produced an immensely appealing wine in 2002. Similar in style to its 2000, this Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated wine (62%) boasts rich yet elegant ripe smoky blackcurrant and cherry fruit of great balance and purity. The finish is extremely long and creamy with mocha hints and soft tannins courtesy of the large dash of Merlot (32%) in the blend. Drink 2009-2014.

This is incredibly complex and defies the vintage. It is dark, well structured with more fine ripe tannins, a complexity then I found on most of the wines this vintage and a streak of minerality and energy and a beautiful floral aromatic note on the nose. St-Estèphe escaped the torrential rain at harvest that plagued most of the Medoc and the resulting wines are incredible. An unusual blend as it has no Cabernet Franc and the final blend is 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot. 

Very minerally and earthy, this is classic St Estèphe. Exceptionally sweet, pure blackberry fruit helps bestow the wine with real character, while the floral nose gives the wine a coquettish touch. This is still very full-bodied with surprising levels of tannin for a second wine. With an immense concentration of fruit, and a dash more Merlot (46%) it is, as you might expect, a prettier, more approachable version of the Grand Vin. And very good it is too.

La Dame de Montrose is often an extremely austere wine to taste en primeur with the linear tannins of St Estèphe sometimes obtrusively firm. Not so in 2009, where the massive level of tannins are wonderfully succulent and ripe. Dark bramble fruit dominates the nose and the palate is concentrated yet brooding with a gravelly, mocha darkness. This is a very attractive wine.

In 2010, Ch. Montrose purchased 22ha of prime land from their neighbours, Ch. Phélan-Ségur. The vineyard exactly borders Montrose on its western side and is planted with 2/3 Merlot and 1/3 Cabernet Sauvignon. According to who you speak with, this may be Phélan’s best parcel and the Merlot is especially prized. This has given the Montrose team a short-term puzzle, resulting in a higher than usual proportion of Merlot in the blend for the Grand Vin. This will be adjusted over the coming years as existing Montrose Merlot on excellent Cabernet land near the river is replanted to the latter, but in the meantime there is an embarrassment of fine Merlot on the estate. Not that this is a problem: in 2012 the Merlot excelled. This wine, with 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, is dense and spicy, with the very low-yielding Cabernet fully ripe and giving an earnest backbone to some high quality Merlot. This is perhaps not a traditional Montrose, but it is certainly a beguiling one.
Mark Pardoe MW, Wine Buying Director

A dark black-red, Montrose is brooding in the glass. Complex and concentrated on the nose, there are blackcurrants, liquorice and hints of mint. There is a nice intensity on the palate, quite firm, full-bodied and full of minerals and spice. Perhaps more refined than usual, the wine is really rewarding and quite generous with notes of fleshy dark cherry and blackcurrants. There is an inherent richness here, a lovely dark fruit profile and pure, focused tannins which are typical of this great estate. This is a really fine effort, engaging, atypical of the great commune of St Estèphe and one of our favourites from the vintage. Modern and pure, it is a perfect expression of modern Ch. Montrose.

30% Merlot, 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petit Verdot, 8% Cabernet Franc