Standard - 75cl
ETA: 12-14 weeks
ETA: 12-14 weeks
One of the greats in the vintage, the 2022 Château Montrose is deep ruby/purple-hued and has a massive perfume of sweet crème de cassis, sappy tobacco, and freshly sharpened pencils. With incredible purity and precision in its aromatics, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a layered, powerful, yet still somehow elegant mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, and a great finish. Based on a classic blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot, it spent 18 months in 60% new French oak. As I wrote during En Primeur, it has the essence of a Montrose-like character. While it’s not a massively backward or austere example of the château, it nevertheless deserves 10-12 years of bottle age and should have at least half a century of longevity. It is, without a doubt, in the same league as the 1989, 1990, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2016, 2018, and 2020.
The 2022 Montrose is insanely beautiful. That much is obvious. When it might be ready to drink is another question. In recent years, Montrose has acquired notable finesse in its tannins, so that is not an issue. But the 2022 is packed with tremendous density and concentration that will need time to soften. Blackberry, graphite, licorice, lavender and chocolate stain the palate in a stunning, riveting wine of the very highest level. I can only hope to be around when the 2022 starts to drink well! Montrose is without question one of the wines of the vintage. Unforgettable.
From barrel, I wrote that 2022 Montrose was so compelling that assigning it a bracketed score seemed a mere formality, and so it has proven. Unwinding in the glass with a deep and brooding bouquet of cassis, wild blueberries, violets, pencil shavings and burning embers, it's full-bodied, deep and dense, somehow marrying all the tannic authority that has long been such a signature of Montrose with a suavity and purity that represents the quintessence of contemporary Bordeaux. The broad, palate-staining finish lasts for more than a minute. This is a profound young wine that readers aren't going to want to miss.
Great depth in the nose, taking you into its core of blackcurrants, pencil shavings, graphite, tar, inkpot and cassis. Full-bodied and very tight, this flexes its polished muscles, showing form and tension. Compacted. From organically grown grapes. 66% cabernet sauvignon, 25% merlot, 8% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot. This needs six to seven years to come around.
A deep heady nose filled with fragrant black fruit, liquorice, tobacco and violets. Sumptuous and seductive, this walks the fine line between presenting the vintage with a heady, charged palate full of sun-kissed fruit and lashings of liquorice spice with pristine cherries and blackcurrants and a vein of salty, crushed stone and iron minerality. Gorgeous acidity keeps the profile lifted and almost airy before the density of the aromatics and flavours comes into play. So well constructed, this has muscles and serious power but within a sleek frame and a delicate chalky touch on the finish.
The 2022 Montrose has an outstanding bouquet that blossoms in the glass. Enticing scents of blackberry, bilberry and a touch of cassis open, while violet and iris flower notes emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins. The 2022 retains the structure of a typical Montrose, but those tannins are so finely chiseled that it renders this wine far more approachable compared to those I was tasting just a decade earlier. There is a patina of menthol toward the finish, a consequence of that year's warmth, yet it remains a seamless Saint-Estèphe that will doubtlessly age with immense grace. Fabulous.
This accounts for 53% of production in this vintage, a high figure for Montrose, which reflects the high quality of the vintage – similar volumes were made in 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2010, says Vincent Decup. The blend is 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot;the percentage of Cabernet Franc is notable, a high figure for the grand vin, taking almost all the estate’s Cabernet Franc from at least four parcels. The élevage was in 60% new oak for 18 months, the remainder second-fill barrels. A nose of dark and polished fruits, spiced with sandalwood, toast, incense, rose and currant. Beautifully polished and broad on the palate, fresh and dark, with salted olive, currant and damson, laced with black pepper, toast and rose, with such a fine-boned spine of tannins they are barely perceptible, until the finish when they add a dense and focused frame to the length. Plenty of peppery energy here, and it is tremendously long too. So complete and harmonious, elegant yet brimming with structure, this is a Montrose with a great future. The alcohol on the label is 14.5% which matches the analysis.
The intensity and the depth of expression is clear from the start, with ripe damson and fig fruits, incense and espresso given balance and tension by pomegrante, slate, lemongrass and mandarin rind. Unrolls to show the depth and class of Montrose, has density without shouting, keeping the estate signature and character. The first full vintage for Pierre Grafeuille as estate director, working alongside long time technical director Vincent Decup. 12% press wine, pretty much exactly the same as ever, this really is a vineyard that delivers consistency.
66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot. Cask sample. Deep crimson hue. Aromatically complex, the Cabernet-cassis notes dominant but a hint of mint and smoke as well. Palate rich but lively with that sense of energy. Plentiful tannins but finely honed. Long with a stony, mineral note on the finish. Noble and refined. Long ageing.