Château Montrose 2023

Château Montrose is a force to be reckoned with.  Nicknamed the "Latour of St-Estéphe," these wines are hyper-masculine dynamos with extraordinary concentration.  They are often described as, "enormous," with very impressive tannins after decades of ageing.  These wines don’t ask for time in the cellar -- they demand it.

This esteemed Second Growth was known as a hunting area before it was acquired by the legendary Alexandre Segur in the 18th Century.  Alexandre had a lot of experience in the wine trade.  He was the proud owner of Château Lafite, Château Mouton, and Château Latour.  Château Montrose was part of a much larger property that Alexandre Segur had acquired called Château Calon Segur. He gave the property to his son who sold it to Etienne Durmoulin.

Eventually, Etienne Durmoulin created Château Montrose because the terroir was different from the surrounding area. Château Montrose received its namesake because of the pink heather that grew on the surrounding hillside.  When it bloomed, the hill burst into various shades of shocking pink.  The French word for “pink” is rose, and thus the estate earned its name, “Mont Rose,” – or the pink mountain.   The estate was classified as a Second Growth in 1855 and acquired by the Charmolue family.  Louis Charmolue was born at the esteemed St-Emilion producer, Château Figeac. Château Montrose stayed in possession of the Charmolue family for three generations.  Under their leadership, the Château became one of the first properties in Bordeaux to bottle wine at their own estate.  

In the 21st Century, Château Montrose was acquired by the Bouygues family after Thomas Bouygues tasted the exalted vintage of 1989 Château Montrose.  He loved the wine so much he decided if he ever could, he would purchase Château Montrose someday.  His dreams came true when the opportunity presented itself in 2006 and he eagerly bought the estate.  The Bouygues family hired a viticultural dream team that included Jean Bernard Delmas, the previous executive director from Château Haut-Brion and Herve Berland of Château Mouton Rothschild as gerant or manager.  They made sweeping changes to the estate.  Most notably, they wanted Château Montrose to be as environmentally sustainable as possible.  

Château Montrose primarily uses geothermal energy to run its operations, with additional solar and wind energy as well.  The estate also uses a hail canon that sends out ultrasonic waves to protect the vineyard from damage caused by hailstorms that plague Bordeaux.  The team at Château Montrose has also set the goal to be 100% organically farmed by 2025 -- an impressive feat for this 95-hectare vineyard.   The porous soil contains 60% of Cabernet Sauvignon plantings, 32% Merlot plantings, 6% Cabernet Franc plantings and 2% Petit Verdot plantings.  

These beautifully firm and complex wines can last for decades and are certainly not ones to drink in their youth.  Many who have been fortunate enough to taste the 1921 vintage still say it’s in great shape!  With the new winemaking team at Château Montrose, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future.

"The 2023 Montrose is another brilliant wine from an estate that's now routinely among Bordeaux's very best, year in, year out. A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc, derived exclusively from the estate's historic core on the fourth terrace situated just in front of the château itself, it unwinds in the glass with aromas of cassis and wild berries mingled with notions of lilac, violet and pencil shavings. Full-bodied, deep and layered, with a textural attack that segues into a dense, multidimensional mid-palate framed by beautifully ripe tannins and lively acids, it concludes with a long, resonant finish. It will be worth a special effort to seek out.

This large estate overlooking the Gironde in Saint-Estèphe produces some of Bordeaux's greatest and longest-lived wines, and the last 15 or so years have seen it benefit from sustained and intelligently directed investment. There's a brand-new winery and cellars, of course, but there's a lot of work going on in the vineyards too. When Olivier and Martin Bouygues acquired Château Montrose from the Charmolüe family in 2006, the estate included fully 17 hectares of pre-clonal vines dating back to the early 20th century, and a massal selection program has since identified 80 viable individuals, mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, for use when replanting (the same efforts are currently being lavished on Merlot, drawing on a block behind the château acquired from Phélan-Ségur). Now, cover crops are being trialed, and the soils are being cultivated more superficially to avoid disrupting the microbiome. Winemaking is rather classical, with maturation in some 60% new oak.

"In 2023, Montrose was largely spared by mildew, receiving less rain than many other estates in June, and harvest rolled out between September 5 and 28. As in 2022, the grand vin this year derives exclusively from the Terrace 4 gravels in front of the estate itself, Montrose's historic core terroir. Readers looking for more information about this de-facto first growth are directed to my feature published in the December 2023 Week 3 issue of The Wine Advocate." - William Kelley, The Wine Advocate, (04/26/2024),  Ratings: 97-100 

"Made from a strict selection of only the best terroirs (terrace 4) around the estate and the oldest vines, the 2023 Château Montrose is a more Cabernet Sauvignon-driven wine than normal and is based on 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc that will see 18 months in 60% new French oak. The result is a more plush, deep, opulent wine that has classic Montrose darker, almost blue fruits, violets, chocolate, and damp earth-like aromas and flavors. Deep, rich, full-bodied, and expansive on the palate, it has more richness, breadth, and concentration than just about every other wine in the vintage. The 2023 hit 13.5% natural alcohol with a pH of 3.7. It has some similarities to the 2010 (or 2016?) and might end up being the wine of the vintage." - Jeb Dunnuck, Bordeaux 2023 En Primeur, (05/08/2024), Ratings: 97-100 

"Gorgeously dark and vibrant fruit, with gunsmoke and campfire, concentrated cassis and blackberry pastille, grilled almond, saffron and pomegrante, luscious but measured, showing the inky character that seems to be at the heart of the best Cabernets of this vintage, with their ripe but not overly exuberant classicism. Organic conversion, to be certified 2025. The first vintage this 1st wine of Montrose is coming only from the section of the vineyard located on Terrace 4 of the Médoc gravel banks that line the Garonne river along the peninsula. Following soil studies from Pierre Becheler, this comprises 35% of the overall production in 2023, or 45ha of vines, and is the historic heart of the property. Pierre Grafeuille director, Vincent Decup technical director." - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux, (04/15/2024), Ratings: 98, Drink: 2032-2048

"So floral and aromatic, really inviting and welcoming on the nose, more aromatic than some. Smooth and intense, clearly concentrated but supple and bouncy, there’s movement to this, it’s not strict. So precise, and finessed, you can feel the edges of the fine tannins - well executed with a mineral grip underneath. You can tell there’s power here, it has muscles but sinew also. Quite demonstrative really - it’s flexing but keeps such a clear line of focus and cool blue fruit with graphite and liquorice too. Round and penetrating with an excellent weight and balance of acidity in the mouth while keeping harmony alongside a hint of sweet and just-ripe strawberries mostly with crunchy cranberry too. A lot to like here. Great effort, classy and comfortable - multi-faceted while still being so juicy and approachable. 60% new oak, ageing in barrels only for 18 months. 3.7pH. 13.6% press wine (300 barrels of press split into seven qualities). 35% grand vin in total, mainly from the old vines which is 45% of the vineyard but 35% of the crop. 48hl/ha yield." - Georgina Hindle, Decanter, (05/07/2024), Ratings: 98

"The 2023 Montrose is a dark, brooding powerhouse but with the elegance that is such a signature today. Black cherry, plum, leather, licorice, mocha, spice, tobacco and dried flowers infuse the 2023 with tons of character. The Cabernet Sauvignon is so expressive here. Readers will have to be patient, as this is a wine built for the cellar. It's not especially showy today, but all the ingredients are there. The 2023 is quite the bruiser. In other words, it’s classic Montrose. In the end, that's not terribly surprising, as the winemaking team relied exclusively on the original holdings of about 45 hectares from what the estate calls the 'grand plateau' or 'Terrace 4', essentially the historic core of the property. Harvest ran from September 5 to 28. There was some rain on the 21st, but 15mm of precipitation after a heat spike was not meaningful. The 2023 is magnificent in every way." - Antonio Galloni, Vinous, (04/30/2024), Ratings: 95-97