Château Montrose 2025

Vibrant purple colour in the glass. Amazing fragrance, so pure and crystalline – blackcurrants and violet notes. Silky and glossy, packed full of cherry and strawberry fruit with quite massy tannins but keeping a really cool and compact form. Structured with layers of elements but also a little granular, tight and spiced. Liquorice, cool cola and wet stone edges. Maybe less overtly charming and filling than in previous years, but this has a distinctly cool mineral edge and slightly grippy tannins on the finish. I like the style, it’s quite serious and terroir transparent. Ageing should soften this and relax a little. 3.65pH. 80 IPT. 12% press wine. Ageing 18 months, 60% new oak.

Cherries, cedar, Cuban cigar wrappers, blackberries, flowers, smoke and black raspberries provide the aromatic nuances. The palate is even better. Concentrated, deep, dark, and energetic, there is a sophisticated, lushness that delivers its regal tendencies while coating your mouth and palate with multiple layers of supple, rich, waves of black fruits, spice, and chocolate. Montrose is on quite the run. Just when you think they cannot produce a better wine, they come out with the 2025! This is the third vintage produced entirely from vines planted in Terrasse 4. The wine blends 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc. 13.4% ABV, pH 3.65 pH. Harvesting took place August 29 - September 20. This is the earliest start to harvest in the history in the history of the estate. Yields were 30 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2032-2070. 98-100 Pts

Deep and nuanced plum fruit on the opening, vivid ruby in colour with tension, lift and estate signature. An extremely classic Montrose, love the lift with the depth of cassis, cocoa bean, liquorice, crushed mint leaf, squid ink, crayon, a supremely Left Bank wine, very much in the 2023 vein for me, which was a vintage I adored. This has precision and beauty, the kind of En Primeur sample where you feel fresh and energised at the end of tasting it. 60% new oak for ageing, Pierre Graffeuille director.

While La Dame de Montrose impresses with its fine, clearly defined character, Montrose immediately asserts itself as the leader. It radiates serenity, with countless details yet to unfold, while faithfully pursuing the style the estate rightly seeks: elegance! Even when it shines, that brilliance is measured; even when it is complex, freshness resets the balance, establishing itself as a fundamental part of the aromatic backbone. The attack mirrors the bouquet: intensity is good, subtlety is better! The wine opens with a sleek, elongated profile, sculpting a silhouette that gains in breadth as it moves across the palate. The tannins emerge very late, precisely where they can best demonstrate their supremacy—not through raw force, but through their ability to deliver power with precision. They can, of course, rely on the essential support of acidity. Yet it must be said that it arrives on tiptoe, seemingly intimidated by such vigor. And still, this power is among the noblest—able to impose itself in a whisper, so evident is its reach. The acidic structure therefore helps draw the contours and, all the same, gently frame these conquering tannins. The guiding thread does not shift by a millimeter: elegance holds sway over the whole. Only great wines can achieve such a performance.

Deep, glossy black color. An intense, refined nose—fruity, subtle and complex—gaining depth with aeration, revealing notes of red and black fruits laced with spice. Meticulously precise on the attack, with a classy, velvety texture and a full, powerful, enveloping body, the wine melts across the palate, long, complex and noble. Remarkably long, savory finish, with tannins that remain consistently coated and aromatic. Superb! Blend: 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc. Alcohol: 13.4% - pH: 3.65 - IPT: 78 (average). Yield: 30 hl/ha. Harvest dates: from August 29 to September 20.