CHATEAU MONTROSE 2eme Grand Cru Classe, Saint-Estephe 2009 Bottle

Description

Château Montrose 2009 is a powerful yet elegant Bordeaux, acclaimed for its vibrant blackcurrant, plum, and blackberry flavours. This vintage reveals complex layers of cedar, tobacco, and toast, balanced by velvety tannins and lively acidity, ensuring a refined profile. Rated 100 points by both The Wine Advocate and James Suckling, it boasts an extraordinary nose with aromas of Black Forest cake, liquorice, and warm blueberries. The full-bodied palate is rich and concentrated, showcasing intense black fruit alongside earthy complexities. Vinous awarded it 98+ points, praising its taut bouquet and firm tannin structure. This outstanding wine exemplifies the classic qualities of Saint-Estèphe, offering an impressive balance of strength and finesse, with excellent ageing potential through 2035 and beyond.

*****

Château Montrose is one of the leading wine properties of St.Estéphe, and produces some of the longest-lived wines in the Médoc. Montrose had been owned by Jean-Louis Charmolue from 1962 until 2006, when it was sold to Martin and Olivier Bouygues, owner of the eponymously named construction firm Bouygues, is located in the east of the appellation, just north of the hamlet of Marbuzet, on a gravel knoll only 800 metres from the Gironde estuary. The proximity of the estuary ensures a microclimate that protects against frost, and the vines, which lie on deep clay-gravel soils, benefit from a south-easterly aspect.

Montrose's wine is typically a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc and is matured in oak barriques (30% new) for 18 months.

Montrose wines are traditionally deeply coloured, austere and powerful when young, yet possess superb ageing potential, and when mature are quintessential St.Estèphe clarets.

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 .

THE WINE ADVOCATE 100 points !!!
Hallelujahwhat a glorious nose! The deep garnet colored 2009 Montrose features beautiful Black Forest cake, licorice, crme de cassis and warm blueberries scents with hints of charcoal, truffles, tapenade and menthol plus a waft of star anise. The palate is full-bodied, rich, super concentrated and yet superbly harmonious with a firm backbone of ripe, grainy tannins and wonderful freshness, finishing long and mineral laced.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 14/03/2019

JAMES SUCKLING 100 points !!!
Blueberries, currants and Indian spices on the nose follow through to a full body, with ultra-fine tannins and a lovely finish. It's intense and refined. A beauty. It goes on for minutes. Speechless. Better and cleaner than the great 1990. Try in 2022.

VINOUS 98+ points
Drinking Window 2025 - 2060
From: A Test Of Greatness: 2009 Bordeaux Ten Years On (March 2019)
The 2009 Montrose has a taut, brilliantly defined bouquet with intense black fruit laced with crushed stone, forest floor, crushed rose petals and a touch of slate. Magnificent. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannin, good depth and grip, plenty of graphite locked in here with a bravura finish that indicates that this Saint-Estèphe is in for the long-haul. It may well deserve a higher score as it evolves in bottle. Everything you wish for in a Montrose. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting. - By Neal Martin on February 2019

JANCIS ROBINSON 18 points
First bottle: Low key, slightly soupy nose. Flashy but it doesn't really have genuine concentration. Bit of a hole in the middle where the ripe fruit should be – though it improved in the glass and presumably will in the bottle. Second bottle: Light, low-key nose. Very nourishing and well balanced. Good ripe fruit and enough freshness. All in balance. Very firm tannins on the end. Neat and dense and confident. Much better bottle than the first bottle. (JR)