Chateau Montrose 1995
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Product Details
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Blend: 63% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 1995 Montrose is beginning to drink brilliantly, and the most recent bottle I pulled from my cellar is the finest I've encountered to date. Wafting from the glass with a classic bouquet of red and black currant fruit, rich loamy soil, cigar box and black truffles, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with terrific concentration, ripe tannins and lively acids. Seamless and complete, readers cellaring this wine should consider opening a few bottles.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted at the vertical in London, I had never really warmed to the 1995 Montrose despite tasting its many times. However, this bottle seemed closed to Robert Parker's remarks from 2014. It is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot that was harvested from 13 to 26 September. The bouquet is less vigorous and more approachable than the 1996 Montrose, initially quite taciturn, but gaining vigor with time and offering blackberry, briary and undergrowth scents, later just a touch of bay leaf and sandalwood. The palate is driven by the higher Merlot content, rendering this a relatively plush and comely Saint Estèphe, well balanced with very good depth, perhaps a Montrose for those with a penchant for headier and opulent styles of wine. Whilst the 1996 has the class and sophistication, the greatest virtue of the 1995 is the most fundamental: enjoyment. Tasted June 2016.
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An extensive renovation program with very strict environmental objectives has been carried out at the estate since it was acquired by Martin and Olivier Bouygues in 2006, reflecting the new owners’ determination to perpetuate the quality of the wine and make Chateau Montrose a model of skilled winemaking and sustainable development.
Under the direction of Hervé Berland since 2012, the estate has 68 employees in the vineyard and winery, all of whom share the same philosophy: respect for the terroir and a constant quest for excellence. That philosophy is manifested in meticulous vineyard practices, very precise parcel selection and use of only the best grapes to make the premium wine, Chateau Montrose.
The other qualities are used to make the second wine, La Dame de Montrose, and the third wine, Le Saint-Estèphe de Montrose.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.