2021 Château Montrose, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot.

Dark garnet with quite a bit of evolution at the rim. A much simpler nose than most vintages. Straightforward cassis and the fruit struggling to counteract the acidity. Bone-dry finish expresses the commune but is a tad dominant. Very minerally.

Drink 2029 - 2040

The Grand Vin 2021 Château Montrose checks in as 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot, raised mostly in new oak. It's an absolute classic expression of this terrior, offering pure cassis and assorted darker currant fruits that give way to more damp earth, violet, and leafy tobacco nuances. With medium-bodied richness, perfect integration of its acidity, tannins, and oak, beautiful mid-palate depth, and a great finish, it's going to benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this still showing beautifully at age 30. It's a remarkable wine in this challenging vintage.

Drink 2028 - 2051

Extremely impressive, this lives up to En Primeur expectations. Cloves, sandalwood, liqourice, fennel, cracked black pepper, and a ton of juicy cassis and blueberry fruit. Delicious, with well-defined tannic architecture and plenty of potential to deliver for 15 to 20 years. 55% new oak. Pierre Grafeuille director.

Drink 2028 - 2041

The 2021 Montrose is not dissimilar to the sample I tasted from barrel two years earlier. It eschews the more complex and, one might say, "ambitious" aromatic profiles seen in recent years for example, the spectacular 2020) and delivers a more streamlined version. Blackberry, crushed iris flower, graphite and light autumn leaf aromas become prettier as it opens in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and impressive depth, very silky in texture with excellent purity of fruit. The Cabernet is a little more expressive than it was out of barrel, gently building in the mouth toward a very harmonious finish. This is a delightful Montrose, not the best in recent years, but it has gained complexity during its élevage.

Drink 2026 - 2050

62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot.

This shows Montrose personality with blackberries, blackcurrants and graphite, along with some spices and cedar. Medium-bodied with very fine tannins and a juicy finish. Refined and balanced. Drink or hold.

The 2021 Montrose is an inward, brooding wine—classic Montrose, in other words, just attenuated in its intensity by the cool growing season. Spice, tobacco, cedar, menthol, scorched earth, gravel and a touch of new oak open over time, but the 2021 is really a wine that requires considerable cellaring to reach its potential. Then again, it is Montrose. Elegance meets power here.

Drink 2031 - 2051

Dark and milk chocolate, raspberries and red cherries on the nose, with a soft vanilla fragrance and some pink floral aspects. Great tension and direction, personality and verve, high acidity but balanced with the tangy red berry fruit – buzzy with energy and focus. Has precision and drive as well as power and concentration, but all with a lovely elegance and sense of style. Classy and classic, a brilliant wine in 2021.

Drink 2026 - 2048

A blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2021 Montrose is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs some patient swirling to reveal notes of iron ore, mossy tree bark, and chalk dust, leading to a core of fresh blackcurrants, kirsch, and lilacs, plus a hint of pencil shavings. The light to medium-bodied palate is tightly coiled, offering shimmery layers of minerals, black and red berries, and fragrant earth-inspired flavors, supported by a fine-grained texture, finishing with great freshness and length. Impactful!

Drink 2026 - 2046

This young classic, reminiscent of the estate's 1996 but far better, is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot.

The remarkable 2021 Montrose gets my nomination for the title of "wine of the vintage" in the Médoc. Wafting from the glass with a deep bouquet of cassis and dark berries mingled with subtle hints of mint, orange, pencil shavings and spices, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a layered and multidimensional core of fruit underpinned by beautifully ripe, refined tannins. Concluding with a long, resonant finish, it entirely transcends the limitations of the year.

Drink 2031 - 2065