As he comes to the end of his en-primeur travels for 2024 Wine-Searcher’s Wine Director, David Allen MW sits down with an en primeur sample of 2023 Chateau Montrose from Saint Estephe to talk about its velvety, seductive structure and vibrant, lively fruit.
Château Montrose is a well-regarded and critically acclaimed estate based in the Saint-Estèphe appellation of Bordeaux’s northern Médoc region. The estate was ranked as a second growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, and is regarded as one of the very best properties at that level.
The château is unusual in that it is more of a small hamlet than a single castle or estate. This is due to extensive estate developments in the late 19th Century.
The epitome of the Saint-Estèphe appellation, Montrose’s top wine is known for its structure (even austerity) in youth, but beguiling many as it ages.
The 95-hectare (235-acre) vineyard exists, unusually for modern Bordeaux, as one single entity. It is sited on an exposed site of deep, coarse gravels with sand and a little clay, overlooking the Gironde.
The immediate proximity of the water has a moderating effect on both frost and summer heat, and the pebbles in the soil retain daytime warmth into the evening, aiding ripening. The château is situated around three kilometers (1.8 miles) northeast of Château Cos d’Estournel (another so-called “super-second” – i.e. a highly regarded second growth estate) on the border with the Pauillac appellation.
From the 2023 vintage, the fruit from the Grand Vin is only being taken from a 45-hectare section of the property known as Terrace 4. This is the original terroir of Montrose, first planted in 1815.
The deep gravels on clay here have compact iron layers which prevent deep rooting. Instead the vine roots develop horizontally, close to the surface. The clays provide water by capillary action, maintaining a steady state of water stress. This particularly suits high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon.
The wider vineyard is planted to a range of the classic Bordeaux varieties with, as is often typical in big names of the so-called Left Bank (of the Gironde estuary), a predominance of Cabernet Sauvignon. The latter accounts for around 60 percent of plantings with 32 percent Merlot, six percent Cabernet Franc and two percent Petit Verdot.
Grapes are hand picked, often beginning with Merlot and ending with Cabernet Sauvignon. A first selection is made in the vineyard and a second before vinification, which takes place in stainless-steel vats over 20 days with several pump-overs per day. Components of the same grape variety and quality level are blended before malolactic fermentation. In January the wine is moved to oak barrels to age.
To find out more about this wine, its pricing and where to buy it go to the Wine-Searcher website https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/montrose+st+estephe+medoc+bordeaux+france/2023
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2 Comments
First primeur sample You don't spit out, that says a lot. Sounds like a delicious one.
Sounds great, I tried to book a visit there but they don’t take regular punters, only critics and proper wine people. Ha