***** 100 Punkte James Suckling *****
***** 99+ Punkte Parker *****

99+ Punkte Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: Just as it was from barrel, the 2023 Montrose is one of the most compelling wines of the vintage. Unwinding in the glass with a brooding bouquet of cassis, violets and burning embers, it's full-bodied, with prodigious mid-palate density and dimension, its concentrated core of fruit underpinned by abundant but ultra-refined tannins and lively acids. Broad, penetrating and persistent, it's a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc. This is a very serious wine, carrying plenty of structure; but while it will certainly require some patience, today's more precise extraction and élevage choices mean that it will not mandate the 20-30 years of deferred gratification that were once the norm at this address, even if I'm convinced the 2023 will be just as long-lived as the classics of the past. 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. Montrose!