Community Tasting Note

Saturday, December 14, 2013 - High expectations and disappointed. While I find the 01 Montrose an excellent and very intriguing wine, am yet to drink a really convincing mature Montrose. After a flawed 78, an ok but given the vintage underwhelming 95, comes this Montrose from the 86 vintage which I really like drinking these days.
Bottle in outstanding condition - high fill. Poured into decanter and drank a few glasses immediately with Iberico pork at home. Then let it sit in the decanter for about 2h before going back to the wine. Still a fairly dark garnet. Surprisingly accessible immediately upon opening - neither closed nor tannic but a nice, fairly mature and easy drinking Bordeaux with the meat. Two hours later this has become more tannic but still not particularly expressive. You have to swirl for quite a while to get sous bois and some sweet dark fruit out of the nose. On the palate tobacco and leather and some dark fruit. Medium (-), drying tannins. Quite nice medium finish.
While I admire the 01 Montrose for being a dark and mysterious wine "in sotto voce", this 86 is also speaking at a low voice but here it's more like it's losing its voice for good. I think this will dry out in the mid-term (3-4 years) and perhaps have a come back in the long run (10 years) but is it worth the wait...? 90-91

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4 comments have been posted

Comment posted by Holmas:

12/14/2013 1:18:00 PM - Try the 1996...
Comment posted by pavel_p:

12/14/2013 5:17:00 PM - I might if I come across it but then it's not much higher scored at CT (and by critics) than the 86 or 95.. Just hard to get my head around the fact that wines from very good vintages like 86 or 95, from a second growth known for long lasting wines, do not impress much these days (at least for me that is).
Comment posted by ob2:

12/17/2013 12:16:00 AM - Interesting. I just bought magnums of the 75 as well as a bottle of the 86 at auction. Will let you know how they fare once they get to me in Singapore.
Comment posted by Kris G:

4/16/2014 8:18:00 AM - 2 years ago I served this '86 bottle blind in old Bordeaux tasting and everybody loved it, most likely still a bit on the young side of its drinking window