94-95 Still youthful, but delightful. Decanted four hours and back in the bottle for another 6. Drank out of Grassl Liberte (a much better choice than the oversized Cru). Very lithe, smooth and balanced. Fruit barely peaking out, but just so balanced with a medium-to-long finish. 13% alc feels underpowered to modern monsters, but then you realize you can drink the whole bottle without any conundrums, and that’s great. Lovely at a French bistro with chicken liver mousse and duck frites. I’d say “next one in five years”, but I know it will happen sooner (I have a lot). Ultimately, a baby, but not an ugly baby!
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Bloody hell, laddie, this one is tight. A black hole of a wine; nothing escapes. One hour in a decanter and a couple of wisps of something aromaish deigns to make an appearance. Too faint to be recognizable. Another hour, those wisps have coalesced enough to show some fruit and a little spice. This is not fun.
Another hour, and dinner has been on the table for half of it. We have poured the wine into glasses, it is still bad tempered and showing little.
Another hour and the wine has decided not to fight quite as hard. It is still massive, the tannins are hard but not spiky, and now the wine is showing plenty of fruit, spice and licorice. Still I feel there is a lot hidden.
This was all about potential and had little to do with pleasure. I did have a final glass 6 hours in, and it was still not fully open, but far and away the best tasted. I have five bottles left, and it needs ten years plus, probably more.
Chateau Montrose Tasting (Bentley Bar & Restaurant, Sydney): Polished, rich and generous nose shows good quality oak, sweet spice, bacon fat, blackcurrant, plums a little violet, smells younger than the 2011, touch of clay. Juicy and generous here on the palate as well, a little savoury, almost salted liquorice notes joins the black hued fruits, tannins are woody, talc textured and super persistent, a little sous bois joins on the finish with the liquorice slightly more pronounced. Pretty clever
A 3 hour decant has 05 Montrose showing beautifully, wafting layers of cassis, cedar, saddle leather and mocha with a silky and vibrant palate and fine grained tannins. Still so young but in a real nice spot.
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A delightful wine! Opened the bottle at noon, decanted at 5pm. Started drinking at 8pm. Stunning. Brick color. Tannins are smooth and well integrated. Musk, leather, saffron, smoke, subtle vanilla and licorice. Cedar well in the background. Still some floral notes of violet that intoxicate and leave you wanting one more sip! After an hour, forest floor, mushroom, umami and moss. Wow! A delightful experience. But this wine has a long runway in front of it. Will be interesting to follow over time.
My first of three and I believe it needs more time to really show its best. Double decanted for 7 hours. Still a beast, but wit complexity and potential showing through.
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Totally agree with other comments below, this is absolutely brilliant but really only starting to inch into its drinking window, which will surely be long. I hope I can hold back for 5 years!
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This is so damn good!!! needs many more years, but decanted for 6 hours (needed 10 hours, for real). a bit sweet, big sappy red fruits, massive volume to this wine, very primary still but this wine will be insane in 15 years. For the price point tough to find a better wine
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Fathers' Gathering (Q by Peter Chang - Bethesda, Maryland): Youthful expressive nose displaying intense black and blue fruit, crème de cassis, crushed blueberry, latte, a hint of mint, lead pencil, cedar, cabernet floral dust, sweet spices and crushed rocks. Excellent concentration, layers upon layers of intense black and blue fruit, silky and fluid, beautiful balance and detail, perfect amount of acidity, strong mineral, very fine tannins and a long intense black and blue fruit driven mineral finish with a hint of rose at the end. Although it can easily improve for another decade or two, this is starting to drink beautifully. If you find sub $175 at auction, perhaps the wine to buy. Highly recommend.
Had this bottle at Bouchon in Vegas. Delicious but still a bit harsh and angular. Unfortunately, it didn't get a lot of time to open up. I suspect my score would have been higher had it had 3-4 hours in the decanter as opposed to the 30 mins it received. Give it some time.
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This 2005 was elegant and complex. I do love Montrose, and we tasted this as part of a 2005 horizontal with Cos D’estournel and Cantanec Brown. The wine was double decanted three hours before serving. This beautiful wine continued to open up in the glass. Secondary aromatics were deep and pleasing - leather, cigar, cedar. But bright fruit also still present. I loved this wine - but I will wait another two years before opening another bottle. This big year still has time to evolve.
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Slow oxidation for 5 hours. It kept evolving for 5+ hours, until we finished it. Deep garnet. Nose of red fruit, wet stones, coffee, and spices. This wine still had tight tannin and vivid acidity, but on the palate, it was pure and clean. The finish is long and juicy, with ignorable sweetness. It is still young but will definitely go places. At least another 5-10 years are needed.
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PnP is not the best way to get the most from this beautiful wine at such an early stage of its evolution, but sometimes circumstances dictate the need for speed. Having said that, the nose was immediately open for business with glorious red and dark fruit, burning embers, fresh tobacco and flowers. Lovely crystalline palate with wonderful fruit, silky, expressive tannins and fabulous length. This will be even better in about 5 years so will hopefully be able to keep my remaining bottles under lock and key until then... if not, a 2 hour decant will be in order.
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Decanted for one hour. Nose of blackberry, currant, cedar, graphite, fig and anise. Ripe black and red fruit, graphite, cedar, anise and fine tannins on the palate. Extremely well balanced. Very long, layered finish. Medium to full bodied. Served with reverse seared picanha and blue cheese, black truffle butter.
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I gave this a 9 hour slow ox. Then served it at a friend's house in which we drank it over a 3 hour window of time. The bouquet immediately compelled my intrigue with glorious aromas of violets , sage , basalmic , ripe figs. One of the most attractive gathering of smells I've ever experienced in a Bordeaux. We couldn't stop whiffing it. My friend said this was the 5th time he has had the '05 Montrose and every one of them smelled just as amazing. On the palate it was just as spectacular with such precision and purity of all elements coming together with no one component dominating. Blackberries, blueberries, and mission fig melded with savory thyme as a necessary graphite frame pulsed through the mid-palate and beyond . Tannin , acidity , fruit and secondary flavors were all in harmony to create a fantastic wine experience. I give it 96 pts and ponder if it will get WAY better than this in the next decade. For me and my friend Nick it definitely doesn't need to wait any longer but the key to that conclusion is giving it lots of patience by slow ox as stated earlier. Maybe the only thing lacking is the finish could be even longer. It was a 15 second length. On an extra note , we started our tasting by drinking a 2000 Leoville Las Cases followed by a 2002 Chateu Musar from Lebanon and then the 2005 Montrose. We left some of the first two bottles to revisit. The Musar was absolutely delightful and had an almost brandy like quality on the nose. The Las Cases was good but for some reason Las Cases has never performed as well as expected given the cost. I would describe the '05 Montose as a girl next door kind of beauty that does seduce you but not in a slutty way. This was pure class and that's the way I prefer it to be.
4 hour decant. Very nice nose, a bit buttoned up but definitely graphie forward with excellent darker qualities and a hint of anise. This wine has a fairly broad structure, with nice dark fruit and good length. Young and still ageing slowly and gracefully, there is no rush on this wine and will almost certainly improve with more time.
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From my cellar, drank and shared with friends at the High Museum Wine Auction. Decanted 30 mins and drank over the next hour. Surprisingly open after that short decant! Well integrated tannins, lovely nose. PLENTY of new world wines being poured at this event so brought something different for myself! Everyone I shared it with loved it! Randomly, the '03 Angelus was also being poured at the reception (by the winemaker!) amongst the sea of new world wines and I thought both of these old world wines showed similarly and were some of the best of the day.
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Like the Rochioli SV I had same night, this was maybe the worst showing of the 2005 Montrose I have had. This wine is insanely great. great! This lacked the finesse and structure. This was muted, sappy red fruits, and needed time. This wine is a 97+pt wine, not tonight.... Risk of buying these on secondary markets which is where I got these
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The conventional opinion was to give this a lot of time, but I preferred it at its outset for its cool, deep, intense black fruit and mineral. It still has oak to eat and it’s not super giving on the palate. Still very much an adolescent and I am sticking with my drinking window from my 2008 note - sit tight another 5 years. But a truly great vintage at Montrose? I’m not sure.
Chateau Montrose: '78, '96, '05 & Champagne (Paris Dining Club, Mpls, MN): Very dark red/purple color. Drank a glass plus over 2 hours. The graphite really comes through on the nose with purple fruits, a little high toned on the nose. Black cherry, cassis, wood spice, rich, blackberry liqueur and black raspberry liqueur, scorched earth, big and dense with oak and firm tannins. This seemed to show better the first hour and then shut down more with the structure taking over and showing the tannins and oak that need to ultimately be tamed with more time. Lots of potential, and this showed better than expected at this point. No official score, but this has excellent upside, gut impression today is 93(++), but I fully expect this to live up to all the expectations if you wait long enough - give it at least another 5-7 and revisit, but really this is a start at 25 and go from there wine.
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Cigar box, cherries, and dried herbs on the nose. Well structured, still tannic, and a touch hot. On the palate, there’s some dusty graphite and dusky fruit, but not a heck of a lot else going on. Several hours of air softened the wine, gave it more finesse, roundness, and subtle sweetness; much more enjoyable! It’s unquestionably a lovely wine, but this bottle was not showing its best.
The 2005 Montrose opened with a a deep crimson colour with an initially closed nose that opened with several hours in the decanter to reveal a both fragrant and rich nose of blackcurrants, garnet plums, dark chocolate, cedar and charcoal. The palate reflects the richness of the nose with intense blackcurrant and plum fruit characters balanced with a long and fine line of walnuts, cedar and cigar box characters. There is the balance, finesse, purity and intensity of the best 05s that make this a reference standard for Montrose.
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Decanted for 6 hours, really came alive after 2.5 hours, the nose on this is amazing and could be detected while sitting next to the glass, ever evolving red and dark fruits with sone floral notes, caramel and vanilla in the background, but mainly fruit forward. Flavors are of blackberry, cassis and strawberry with a tart cranberry aftertaste, quite tannic but not to the point that it isn’t enjoyable (it was quite enjoyable indeed), nice acidity this wine seems to have a long life ahead of it, I wanted to try one to see if I should get more and I definitely will! An excellent wine, and one of those that the tasting note can never do it Justice!
Subtle bouquet of ripe, juicy blackberries, fresh Linzer tarte, a tiny bit of funk. Incredibly balanced palate, juicy, ripe berries, subtle sweetness, acidity, highest quality dark chocolate, leading to a long finish with spices and minerals. First night still a bit hard, but softened subsequently and much improved on second night. A real treat, elegant, balanced but also powerful. Sterner, fresher than the 2003, but a great wine in development. Will benefit from a few years more in the cellar but already a joy to drink.
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Lunch at 67PM: Didn’t show as well as the VCC alongside, similar to the previous note from a couple months back with the animal funk and brooding fruit being the primary characteristics of this wine.
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Drank with dinner at the Inn at Little Washington. Showing beautiful notes of secondary development (already) with smoke, grilled meat and dark brooding blackberry fruit. Tannins are still very assertive, however, and will take at least another decade to melt away. The question will be if the flavors and tannins will mature at the same pace?
Opaque deep purple with slight brick rim. Aroma of intense juicy grape, spice box, cedar and faint anise. Palate entry with silky tannin, meaty, gamy and black pepper. Followed with mid-palate of juicy grape, ginger ale and plum. Long finish of licorice, mint, cedar and eucalyptus. Massive mouthwatering Bordeaux, complex but smooth, rounded and easy to drink.
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Powerful, concentrated, deep, long, intense, youthful, and tannic, there is a strong backbone here that will allow this to age gracefully for 2-3 decades with ease. But it is not ready to go at this point. So, either give it 2 hours of air, or wait 5-10 more years.
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Very young! At this stage, seemingly equal parts red and purple fruited. Exquisite bouquet, prototypical of varieties in place. Bright red fruits and berries, deep purple and black berries, herbs (mint), tobacco, spent espresso grounds, dark chocolate powder, and more concentrated clay and gravel terroir elements than this purist knew what to do with! Hot Damn!
High quality Merlot, with plum, pomegranate, and crunchy red berry notes, serves as a velvet glove, draping an iron fist, Cabernet Sauvignon-driven core, of blackcurrant, pepper garden, graphite, and that piercing, powdered steel-like suspension that differentiates Saint-Estèphe from other Left Bank communes.
Acid, medium plus to high. Tannin, medium to medium plus (powdery and gritty). Air enhanced the experience. The last sips were best.
Purists with low tannin tolerance, who enjoy great Left Bank offerings fully resolved should avoid this for no less than another decade. More rough and tumble, high-tannin tolerate palates should decant for several hours, strap in, and enjoy the kick-ass ride. Once the wine hits its square drinking window, perhaps roundabout 2035, but more likely, 2040, it should hold for several more years.
Only the Léoville Las Cases has made an equal impression in this vintage. That wine delivers strapping substance. This wine delivers striking balance of range and depth. Improvement likely. 98-99.
A powerful tasting experience on which to write my 1,000th Bordeaux note.
I wish I didn't open this. Great wine that will be a real treat but needs years or a long decant. I would prefer the years. Opened at Easter dinner when wine was really flowing. Followed a 2012 Ciacci Piccolomini Santa Caterina and 2 bottles of 2006 Sassicaia. Wasn't time to decant. Wine was really reticent showing some intense black fruits, tobacco, flowers, licorice, and gravel. Will be a stunner but honestly, I won't open my other bottle until it's in it's twenties. And even then, I will make sure I can decant if necessary. This would be my advice unless you have enough bottles and are dying to try. This wine is massive and intensely structured.
Clear deep ruby; clean medium nose of fall cracked leaves and perfume; dry; medium plus acidity; medium plus tannins; medium plus alcohol; medium plus body; pronounced flavour intensity; palate is tarter with addition of blackberries, cocoa and tar - much better than nose; long finish; drink now or in 10 years
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Excellent, chiseled, strong wine that would’ve been a great pair with rib steak. Sweeter and more fruits (dark and blue fruits) than the Pichon. An excellent wine on its own but not quite as much complexity as the Baron. Drink or hold. Regarding the funk/barnyard, we got that too but we did a double decant and it eventually blows over. It needs a lot of air and time.
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Found a pleasent surprise at the end of the EK F lounge in DXB! What a treat, agreed with previous notes about slight funky / barn yard nose but how wonderful! Enjoyed half a glass and by far best Bordeaux I have yet to enjoy. Surly will develop wonderfully for next decade. CHEERS!
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67PM: Very old-school, especially next to the 2010 Lynch Bages. Some funk on the nose, the dark fruit was still rather tight and brooding. Quite unforgiving behind a wall of tannins at the moment, will hold off on my bottle for a while yet.
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Mesmerizing nose of cassis, berries, forest floor, earth amd truffle. The mouth - big body, lucious, bursting dark fruit, anise, pepper and herbs. Big structure and very tight tannins, suggesting this wine is way to young right now. Still a stunner, even at this point in its life, but this Montrose needs at least a decade to come into its own and probably another 5 years on top of that to start peaking. Hold...
93 points, probably a 95-96 pointer once it hits maturity.
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Lots of fine silty sediment made decanting somewhat tricky in order to not stir it up into the wine. Blackberry fruit primarily. Dusty cedar, spicebox. Big wine still drinks like a young wine. Finishes long with a dark chocolate note.
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Out of 375ml. A bit of manure/barn yard. Thicker textured with dark soil. Youthful density. Not as pure red and freshly delineated as the 750ml of '05 I had last November. Reminded me a bit of older 80s/90s LB with the funk and density. I wouldn't have recognized it as the same bottle of '05 Montrose if I didn't know ahead of time. Still a 94+ showing here... just in a different way.
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1966 – 2010 Château Montrose vertical (Regional Wines, Wellington, NZ): Served single blind, one pour. Varieties: CS 65% | M 31% | CF 3.5%| PV 0.5%. From this wine – the sixth – there was a clear step up in the tasting to uniformly very fine quality. All of the last six wines were, for me anyway, undeniably great wines, where a large part of comparative views would have reflected individual palate preferences … A bright, primary, dark colour marked a major change from the 1966. Expressive very dark fruit on bouquet, suggesting real power, framed by traces of spicy, sweet, vanillin oak, more than seen on any of the first five wines. Also, pencil shavings, cedar, black liquorice and slaty minerals. In the mouth, tons of ripe, rich black berry fruit and crème de cassis. Huge scale, power and structure, making me think immediately it could only be the 2003 or 2005. Palate coating. Very impressive but not really ready. Superb gravelly tannins, grippy and a little hard on the very long, persistent and muscular finish. Towards the end of the tasting more nuance seemed to be emerging from the glass. Ideally, in my view, the 2005 should be cellared until 2030+, when I likely will rate it higher than 95+.
Rankings: Me 6/12 | GK 2/12 | CT 5/12.
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Double decanted 2 hours before serving. It took 2 hours before it started to open up. Tight in the beginning but then the next 3 hours the dark fruit and cedar notes came through. Full bodied and intense. Smooth polished tannins. I think it will further develop the next 5 years at least with more fruit coming through. I regret not waiting. It was served together with filet of moose, mushroom pepper sauce.
Gang of 4 in Covid19 times; Bordeaux, St. Estephe (@ RW): Beautiful, concentrated and deep bouquet with dark berries, spices, oak and cedar. On the palate dark berries, chocolate, oak, beautiful acidity and round tannin. Truly beautiful already, but it will certainly improve over the next 5 – 10+ years. 93++
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Decanted for an hour and either I didn't give it enough air, or perhaps it needs a lot more time in bottle (from a 750mln this time vs. 375mln) but this wasn't anything like my last experience with this wine. Still far too young and primary to do it justice. Rich, concentrated, tannic and acidic, this needs another 3-5yrs (or perhaps a very long decant) to do it justice, and then hopefully my score has a lot of upside as all the building blocks are there. Hold.
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Still only hinting at where this wine will ultimately land with further cellaring, this bottle was wonderful. Lots of youthful energy on the nose with more red than dark fruits and some cedar, tobacco, mineral and lavender notes. More feminine than I expected given my experience with other vintages. Great inner mouth perfume, energy and lift with a long, long finish. Already very harmonious albeit with some tannins still to be resolved. A couple of hours of aeration really helped.
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Inktzwarte kleur - Nog in primair stadium - Aroma's van kruiden, tabak, cassis, aards en leer - Nog vrij strak in de mond, rijk aan zwart fruit, indrukwekkend maar bijlange nog niet klaar, tannines nog niet in balans - Afdronk +40 '' - Enorm potentieel ! Drink rond 2026.
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Really hitting its prime. Only needed 15-20 min to open. Medium to full-bodied. Cedar, graphite, cassis. Medium tannins. Went perfectly with beef tenderloin and foie gras.
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Christmas Eve lamb with family and another happy experience with this wine. The '05 has been consistent in delivering a sophisticated and elegant taste experience. It does not demand your attention but elicits your respect.
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This is one of my all time favorites. Everytime I drink a bottle I need to go out and find more bottles. The wine has yet to disappoint, except for this one. This did not have the explosive floral nose, the great balnce of oak and fruit. This is the risk of buying on secondary markets. This was enjoyable but not great. This has more to do with the bottle condition than the wine, my previous notes tell more about this great wine
Decant off the sediment. Tons of graphite and black fruit on the nose. Really started to show the bouquet 30 min in. Lots of complex herb notes. Palate is bright but tight even with air. Great acidity and solid weight but lacks finish. Needs more time to fill out. Did pair amazing with black truffle Chanterelle risotto.
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Bright red currants and berries, licorice, pine tree, mint and graphite. Gorgeous palate already, slightly on the effeminate side with plush fruit and delicate attractive balance. Long long finish.
In the zone already and more open than many other 05s of similar quality.
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Young on the nose. Palate is rich red fruits, rose tinged flowers, pencil lead, smoke, fresh red fruited slightly high toned acidity, and wonderfully grippy powdery tannin. Needs a bit more time. 95 even now in its youthful state. Possibly 96 with another 10 years? Felt like the wine got a little more austere/slightly juicy as it got too much air (e.g. a glass that got 5 hours). Really enjoyed the bottle in the first 2 hours of opening, after double decanting for gritty sediment.
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Decanted 2 hrs. Very dark healthy ruby purple. A slightly odd nose. Something vegetal and earthy I can't quite put my finger on - a slight hint of cork perhaps? On the palate, smooth, rich, concentrated and powerful. Oodles of extract from the perfectly ripe cabernet fruit, this just oozes class. Very pure - reminds me of Sassicaia. Perfectly drinkable but that slight hint of cork makes me think this may be an out of condition bottle. Darn!
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Now in a great place. No notes taken last night - just savored the moment with friends. Compared to two years ago this really is drinking well now. No doubt it has further to go, but the good news is we are now in a window that means we can keep trying it from here on in. So much complexity and style, yet smooth and silky, with tannins now very well integrated. Lovely stuff.
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The 2005 Montrose continues to show brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with notes of blackcurrant, red fruits, loamy soil, black truffles and cigar ash. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's still brooding and tannic, with lively acids and an imposing chassis of structuring—and artery-cleansing—extract. Still a full decade from maturity, it's one of the last unrepentantly old-school vintages of Montrose, and Médoc purists couldn't own enough. I certainly don't.
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Great bouquet of ripe blue- and blackberries, grilled, sweet peppers, tobacco, cigar box, undergrowth. First night still a bit tight, second night fully on, round lush, inky, softer, with incredibly fine and structured tannins, leading to a long finish with cedar notes, sweet elements and spices. Will definitively benefit from 3-5 years more to further soften and integrate. But already great, dense, complex, full yet very elegant and balanced.
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First bottle out my first case. Dark and brooding. Still very young with barely any secondary notes even on the nose, but delicious!! Tannins well present but not at all harsh. Wonderfully concentrated, one of the most concentrated wines I think I have ever tasted, a truly big wine. The finish goes on for minutes literally, quite remarkable. Others may score it even higher than I do, it will give the US Cab fruit-bombs a run for their money, while actually being quite sophisticated, although "elegant" is not the word I would use here.
Double blind. Pretty clearly Bordeaux with intensity and elegance in the aromas. Good richness on the palate with lots of cigar, bell pepper and earthy funk. I was in the 1990s, so a bit surprised to see this 2005 is so ready.
Meursault (Southside) 1er Cru vs Village, Mostly Blind (Hughes House - Chicago IL): Double blind alongside Foley 2005 Claret. Both seemed very Cabernet-driven, clearly from different parts of the world and philosophically) seemingly different planets. Montrose was old school Bordeaux with black plum, roasted meat and lots of power in an introverted fashion. Very approachable for a 2005, with even more exciting go-forward potential.
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From a 0.375 bottle. Still young, but ready to drink after 3hr decant. The nose was of lovely dark fruits, but needed all the time in the decanter to unfurl and felt like it was perhaps holding something back a bit. It was on the palate that the quality of this wine really shone through though, and the concentration of the beautiful cassis and blackberry were immediately evident. Full-bodied and intense, but somehow with impeccable freshness and balance. While there were some secondary notes - a hint of graphite and cedar - the overall impression was of the exceptional purity and quality of the fruit. The impressive structure also stood out a mile, with the beautifully polished tannins rendering the wine very drinkable, but giving it a sense of coiled energy, and guiding the flavours across the palate, with the flavours lingering on a good 40-50 seconds. This will probably get better still, and I marked it down a point because the nose wasn't completely open for business yet, but it's already superb.
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The old saying, "Slow but steady wins the race" is clearly applicable here as this gem keeps getting better and better with age. Full-bodied, concentrated, tannic, and young, yet it has slipped into adolescence as you find cedar, cigar wrapper, tobacco leaf, herbs, black currants, and a melange of cherries, cassis, and lead pencil on the nose and palate. Powerful, but not overwhelming, classic, regal, and deep, with length and complexity in the finish. Offer it 2 hours of air if you are popping a bottle now, or wait another 5 years and this will really start to shine.
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Decanted for 30 minutes and needed at this young stage. almost 20yrs young this wine and it has been 6 years since we tried it last ( Papies 93) and very happy to see it evolve and become even more beautiful. Granted at this stage the wine is only showing half or so of its potential still its impressive and very elegant. Soft and subtle and in a way restrained but also very welcoming and giving. Its a soft ballerina version of a 2005 caret and especially compared to the Leoville Poyferre 2005 9 Papies 91-92) that we had after was a cut above. A superb wine and testament to the great and consistent winemaking at this great estate. 94 for now but will easily warrant more as it evolves! A must have wine from the 2005 vintage and probably worth buying this than the 2020 !
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Youthful in colour. Not quite as dark as might have expected. Strongly acidic on initial opening - decanted for 1-2hrs and consumed over another 1-2 hrs. Presented as elegant balanced and thoroughly pleasant Bordeaux but lacking in a little character (and fruit). Perhaps going through a closed phase but tasted to me like a slightly lesser vintage (not a 2005) however promising fullness of mouthfeel which might allude to better times ahead.
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I love the 2005’s but am waiting to open most of them. Tonight we opened the Montrose Well balanced, dark fruit, good concentration with developing secondary flavors . This wine has exited the primary phase and has now entered its drinking window. This could rate higher in five years
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Initial nose on opening is closed closed closed. For a 16 year old Bordeaux this wine yields not much more than when it was first bottled. 6 hours in the decanter however and the classic Bordeaux aromas of pencil shavings, star anise, cigars, slate and dark fruit combined with saddle leather waft from the glass. The palate shows huge potential behind the massive tannic structure that dominates the long grippy finish. The fruit is just starting to peek out with just a touch of sweetness and a hint of mellowness starting to show, but this has at least 10 years in front of it before it is really ready to drink. This wine has all the hallmarks of future greatness but it’s a crying shame to open it now, and it gives a true insight into how unapproachable top tier Bordeaux has become. It’s built to be drunk 25-30 years after the vintage but who on earth has that sort of patience to buy wine en-primeur or even on release and hope that all the moving parts coalesce into something eventually yielding pleasure and worthy of its label. 96 points for great patience and future potential only. Closer to 89/90 points if you were hoping that it would deliver on its price point today.
The nose you dream of with aromas of anise, spice, minerals, graphite and some cassis and other dark fruits. Palate is unfortunately very tight but with an exceptional core and a subtle power to it; today it’s just only that dimensional and it’s young and tight but me thinks this is just a tightly coiled beast.
Less evolved than last bottle but think in 5 plus years this will crush.
93 today but with a lot of upside
Be patient
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Deep ruby,medium(+) rose,red cherry,red plum,blueberry,green bell pepper,eucalyptus,dill,ripe fruit,cloves,charred wood,leather,wet leaves,forest floor,dry,medium(+) acidity,smooth high tannin,medium alcohol,medium(+) body,long finish,very good wine,suitable for bottle ageing
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Something happening now, Great nose of dark fruit, graphite, saddle leather but very thin on taste. Put a 1/2 bottle aside. hopefully brings some life to this wine.
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Drank from a magnum. Gorgeous nose of barnyard, truffle, mineral and soft red fruit. Palate follows suite but remains tight, tannic and borderline austere. Needs time but may very well remain impenetrable indefinitely.
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an amazing bottle of wine, holy crap! Young, dark, packed with leather, tobacco, dark fruits. This wine will be amazing in 10 years, but so subtle, so well integrated for its age. easily a contender for my wine of the year. Decanted 7 hours, needed more, but buy this up.
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Battle Cab with JKW; 11/6/2020-11/7/2020 (Woodyville): First obvious BDX this evening. Initially austere and remaining tannic, it gives up black currant, black plum, stone / mineral, and cigar box that go on and on. Wish I had more but my patience has already been tested with this damn vintage! 2025-2050.
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Woodward/Lyon Cabernet Clash; 11/6/2020-11/7/2020: Somewhat muted, this bottle compared to its competition tonight. Still tannic as to be expected. Only BDX that wasn't obvious to me. Bottle variation?
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M&PD Zoom Tasting: Bordeaux (Zoom): An absolute beast. I correctly guessed Montrose but assumed it was the 2003. Tannic, young, dark, dense, brooding, mineral and beautiful.
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After a 3-4 h decant, just a lovely masculine wine. Perfume of dark fruits, tobacco and leather gives way to a lush palate with ripe tannins that sits heavy on the tongue. A long finish that keeps getting better as this ages in the decanter. Fantastic wine now but it’s sure to be even more spectacular as time goes on. My hunch is that this will evolve at a glacial pace, however.
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First bottle out of my case...After 5 hours in the decanter...still a bit tannic, but not harsh and already very accessible...at the beginning of a long life...very classic and really great stuff! Don’t hesitate to open a bottle with a long decant.
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nose -coffee, chocolate covered blueberry, stone/slate mouth - very lush wine, drinking absolutely delicious and more evolved than i recall prior bottles, it very much has a St. Emilion type feel of monolithic dark fruit and slate. tasted against the 05 Cos, and this wine was more hedonistic and open for business today, but perhaps more straightforward. Sexy wine. Drinks great now. We postulated it has higher merlot% than the cos, and we were right (32%M 6%CF vs 18%M4%CF). I would like to drink more of this.
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Verical, amost chalky, dry, cool, very masculin and both powerful and elegant - a well dressed gentleman. Will livon foir many years, but seems approachable - at least from this cellar. From HJ #Anarki
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Deep ruby to deep purple, a little brett on the first nose followed by cassis, black plum, licorice, mint, earth and spice, juicy acidity on the attack with layered blue and black fruit, mint, spice, "spikey" and dry tannins, finishes is all Pauillac with perfumed black fruit, earth, stone, tobacco leaf, and refreshing acidity
Note: Drinking well now but this claret is begging for our patience
more approachable than when tasted 2 years ago, but still a beast. slightly stinky and sulfurous nose, but still manageable. inky black, dark fruits, great complexity with midpalate that made me think of gravel or granite. Hold.
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Chique wood remarkable not metioned in the tasting notes of Cellar Tracker, overlaying a combination of refined black (a.o. cassis) and red fruit. Some colour evolution at the rim. Still not completely integrated, but gaining balance. Needs air and time, it develops in the glass. The ripe tannins are showing some separation in the final. A nice example of 2005 but needs at least another 5 years to culminate. Allard Botenga
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Château Montrose through 6 legendary vintages (Zoom!): 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc, 0.5% Petit Verdot. Herve Berland says this is in the style of the 'old Montrose', before the winemakers had as much understanding of the terroir and when to pick.
The first signs of age appear in the colour of the wine - some redness at the edge. Very classic Bordeaux nose - pencil lead - but a brineiness too. Cool and reserved (but not austere) on the palate, with some gameiness poking through towards the saline finish, which doesn't match the magnificence of the prior wines'.
Lacks the refinement of tonight's younger vintages; Herve Berland says he wouldn't characterise it as an outstanding vintage, and the 05s are going through a quieter patch, but it's at the start of a long drinking window and improving all the time.
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Got a glass here now and having dinner at the WineWatch with friends. The nose is ivory soap with some fruit and alcohol. I get some tart cherry, dark fruit, and loam. It’s just too young for now so decant for a couple hours. But it's a great wine, but still tooooo young.
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Short decant. Thick dark red with violet reflections. Tight nose and palate at first. Well balanced acidity, dry dark fruits, cassis, black mullberries, slightly diluted feel at mid palate, still gripping earthy tannins getting more prominent at the long finish.
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Decanted and followed over 2 hours. Deep ruby. Rich blackberries, capsicum, pepper and leather. Surprisingly young and vital, not much game or musk. Very correct on the palette, with leather and spices more pronouned. Serious tannins, but not unbalanced, if not very refined. At the young end of middle aged - where will it be in another decade? Real claret. Full body, long + finish.
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Great bouquet of ripe gooseberries, blackcurrant, tobacco and spices. First night still relatively closed, fresh, subtle but already very enjoyable. Second night much readier. Medium-bodied, silky, complex, with some freshness, spiciness and sweetness on a long finish. The wine is very elegant, subtle, balanced in its flavor profile. Compared to the 2003, which is more hedonistic, it is calmer, more modest. It still is on an upward curve but already great.
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There is no time like the present and these are strange times, indeed.
12:15 PM Time to pull this cork. A perfect cork comes out clean with no tartrate and 2mm of uniform penetration with no seepage. Sweet fruit and floral perfume trapped for so long fill the air from the neck of the bottle, trapped no longer. Moderate sediment is found in bottle as the deep ruby wine is decanted.
12:30 PM Just a taste in the glass. Deep ruby red with slight garnet rim. Tears move down the sides of the glass so slowly they stop, trapped in time, never reaching the liquid below. Disappearing instead against the sides of the glass. Street market nose of dark boysenberry syrup, floral oils, leaves in the bottom of a fortune tellers cup and grilled beef kabob.
12:45 PM Time for first impressions and I'm met with tongue coating tannin dominating leading to refreshingly bright fresh fruit. Not austere by any stretch of the imagination. Stone and rose petals not far behind and lighter than expected mouthfeel.
6:45 PM Dinner time. 6 hours have passed in the decanter and tannins are back where they belong. Flavors of red crunchy fruits, blackberry, cassis and a nose of licorice, soy sauce and roses.
10:30 PM Bed time. Iron oxide, touch of smoke, stems, raspberry, dusty saddle and all that had come before. Time is a funny thing. Time changes everything. Time, like wine, once spent is gone. Leaving only memories...
Just fantastic but, IMO, still young. With that said, after a few hours of air, this was great. Pure class. The purity of the fruit is stunning. Enjoyable but needs 5+ years to really strut its stuff.
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I was tested by a friend last night. I outperformed by calling both the vintage and the label correctly. I really have to give myself a praise 🙂
First off; highly concentrated tea leaves, leaving me zooming in on St Estephe. Not calling Cos nor Calon Segur as they each have their own character of varying amount of tea leaves. Next obvious character is the classic backward style, not many winemakers bothered but Montrose is very traditional. Last, the distinct big tannins tell me it’s 05 or 10.
more tasting note in finewines.com.sg
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Majestic wine. Cool, calm abd collected, with a very vertical structure, a real cabernet, blackberries here, certainly tannins - much to young, but the wine is still enjoyable now for it's mere class. 95+ #Bæst
Second bottle of this, almost a 4 year gap. The fruit has receded to the background, mineral, steel, and iron dominate. Smooth, silky, and beautiful. The acidity has calmed down a bit and has melded nicely. Bordeaux characteristics are taking hold. Memorable, but in a more restrained way from my first bottle
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Black cherry, black cassis, tobacco, violets, cedar, beautiful balanced palate with cascading dark fruit with medium acid, good length and slightly drying finish
Would benefit from more time in decanter or age, but still very very good
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Great glass! Decanted 4 hours before drinking. Fully agree with the last few tasting notes. This wine must have another 20-25 years of life in it. It was young, and full of fruit. But also notes of cedar and stable animals -). It held its structure through the evening and in the glass and general consensus was that it was the most pleasant experience of the evening - in a strong field of bottles. It was a Magnum kept in perfect conditions. Will open another bottle in a few years time and test my hypothesis.
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I think this is really really good! It has all the Bordeaux signature attributes of crunchy red plums, cedar, flowers, and earth, with youthfull mouth cleansing pull that keeps it light on its feet. But my only concern is that it peter'ed out on the 4th hour, becoming a bit disjointed and losing its focus. A great and holdable bordeaux or any great holdable wine, should get better as it bottoms out. This had me questioning the health of the perfectly presented bottle...Im iffy on holding this, but still give it the marks it deserves based on initial delivery. Will try another soon...If this is standard representation of the wine, I consider this a wine to Drink rather than holding. A great Montrose never the less...
Vinetasters: 2005 Bordeaux 2nd Growths (Skokie, IL): Served double blind. Dense and earthy on the nose with a bit of black cherry. The palate shows a good amount of acidity and balance, and while this is fairly ripe, it’s actually pretty well-balanced until you get to the finish, where a slight bit of roastedness shows up. It’s a fairly big wine; not overdone, but also not particularly elegant. I’m thinking something along the lines of Cos or Montrose? My 5th, group's 6th.
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The 2005 Montrose is truly irresistible. Stepping into the modern era of Montrose, floral and dynamic. Spiced blackcurrant, violet, exotic spices and creamy vanilla. Sexy bouquet with good density. Very young but those who prefer fresher palate might enjoy this today. (94/100)
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Small glass at Bdx Paulee and side by side the 89 Montrose. The 05 was double decanted. Immediately quite open thanks to that prep and it reconfirmed my impression from a year ago that this is coming into very fine form indeed. It was possibly actually drinking more mature than the undecanted 89 alongside which was a true behemoth. The 05 showed some softening in tannins and structure. Given the market price if you don't already own this I think this is a wine to buy.
Decanted an hour. This is a spectacular wine with a lot of potential ahead. The nose is lovely blackberry, tobacco and leather. The wine is full bodied, concentrated but also very refined and focused. The wine reveals delicious cascading flavors of black currant, lead pencil and tobacco into a long satisfying finish. This wine is very good now and still young but it will improve and gain complexity. I expect my rating will be higher in future tastings of this wine.
Dark opaque purple with brown rim. Complex aroma of damp forest floor, ginger, anise, violet and leather. Palate Entry: Medium body. Musty, wet earth, mushroom. Mid-Palate: Cherry, rich spices of anise, cinnamon and cola. Finish: Medium long, sweet creamy silky tannin, oak and mint. Great example of beautifully aging bordeaux with fully integrated tannin. Can't wait to see how it will taste 5-20 years later!
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Best Bordeaux I’ve ever had. Earthy soft tannins. Decanted for 2 hours. Should age for another 20-30 years easily given the acid. Wonderful. Wish I had more.
Wine Group Dinner #168 - 2005 Bordeaux Part 1 (Urbane Restaurant, Brisbane): Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. The 05 Montrose is a cracker of a wine with a dense dark crimson colour and a rich and bright nose of blackcurrant, plum, dark cherry, dark chocolate, charcoal and all-spice. The palate is deeply flavoured and round with beautiful inflections of flavour leading into a finely tannic and lengthy finish. A great bottle of Montrose whose purity is an object lesson cf the 2003 which is rich yes but fine and pure not quite.
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93-94+. I agree with most of the recent notes. Though fairly open for business and tasty right now, it will benefit from at least 3-4 more years. Lot of a classic Bordeaux notes peaking around the corner. For today, drink the 01’ instead!
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Still early, with ttheeh result that the palette didn’t yeild much - lacked definition - even after 2 hours. But good nes is tanins were not harsh, and the nose was lovely, and complex. So its a case of wiating for it to reveal its better self. Have a feeling that in another 5 years this will be very good. So, will try another in 2-3 years to see how its going.
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This just keeps getting better with age. Still a bit tightly wound, so more cellaring is needed until you enjoy the all that ripe, juicy, fresh, sweet, dark, red fruits and spice. The wine is full, deep and intense. It's tannic, but the tannins are ripe, the fruits are sweet, and there is length and purity. The finish shows some dusty texture on the tannins. Give it until 2025 and it should be rockin'!
HDH Bordeaux Auction; 11/9/2018-11/10/2018 (Chicago, IL): Earthy, dusty, bretty, with plenty of black fruit. Broad-shouldered, slightly austere, with the fruit right now a little obscured by the massive structure here. A very big wine that hasn't fully resolved yet. I suspect it may yet soften and become more enjoyable, but it's certainly not great now. The Dame is drinking better.
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Wine & Dine Vol XI (Florhof (Zurich)): Tasted blind as part of a mini Montrose vertical (1996, 2003, 2005, 2009). For me the 2009 out on top, but the 1998 and 2003 were not far behind while the 2005 fell a bit short.
Unfortunately closed and low in intensity. The fruit was surprisingly jamy (even more than the marmeladey 2003) and sweet. Some interesting spiceyness. Tannins not yet well integrated but otherwise great balance.
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Wine & Dine Vol. XI (Zürich): Mini Montrose vertical 96/03/05/09. A good display of Montrose‘s aristocratic, classic charm. The 96 is fully mature and provides a lot of drinking pleasure even if it‘s not the most complex wine. The 03 is the odd one out, extremely spicy and quite ripe (the others who had it blind guessed Napa) but needs a lot of time. The 05 is completely closed, even after 7 hours in the decanter. The 09 is so intense, ripe and profound but so harmonious and elegant, certainly the one with the highest potential.
TN: Unfortunately very closed, not giving much. Revealed just hints what might be in store for this wine with lots of rather red fruit, hints of minerality and leather. Rather tannic at the moment.
Decanting: Decanted it for 7 hours and it was still not open for business. Better forget it for at least 5 more years.
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This wine was tight as a drum. Even after several hours, it just never completely opened up. The stuffing is clearly there, but if you open this now, you'll only see a faint glimpse of its potential. Dark fruit, Asian spices, fresh violets, and tobacco on the nose. Full-bodied, powerful, and very concentrated. Still very primary. Impressive length on the finish, with firm tannins. Moderate level of acidity. I won't open a bottle for at least five years. My score indicates its potential, not its level of enjoyment right now.
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The other vintage at BB&R 2017 en primeur tasting. The wine of the evening for me. Very dark colour, big oaky cassis nose, very tannic with weight of fruit to match. Very long finish. Needs 5 years plus before drinking. An epic ride - like opening up the exhaust baffles on a V12 Aston. Sadly, I have the 04 and 06!
Château sponsored tasting. Compared to ‘09 and ‘98. Very surprised by how ripe and concentrated this came across compared to the ‘09. I was expecting a more austere wine, and while it didn’t have the plushness or scale of the ‘09, still had a core of massive ripe black fruit. Very tannic, but quite fine in the mouth. Far away from drinking plateau. Should be a great Montrose.
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Tasted next to a 2017 barrel sample. Great nose, quite expressive and open - dark fruit, spices, graphite, cedar, tobacco, earth. On the palate more backward - powerful tannins, plenty of fruit, good acidity. Great persistence. Hold. 94-95+
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Berry Brothers 2017 Bordeaux en primeur (plus back vintages) Lindley Hall, London (Lindley Hall, London): Very curious to check in on that as I own a lot of them and when I tasted it a few years ago it was tough to read. This has visually developed and in fact showed older then I would have thought with clear browning. This is a very balanced wine and there is lots going on in a very delectable way - undergrowth, kirsch, mineral, a touch of pepper, long finish. Classic & complete. And funnily it reminded me a bit of the 05 Mouton on that occasion. So I am very pleased with where this is headed and one could now broach it with a decant but patience surely is going to be rewarded. 95+ and drinking window probably 2020-2045
Full nose of plum, smoke and earth tones. Round, rich and approachable but in no way mature. Still pretty structured and bruising. Long and persistent, with an almost elegant finish (which is surprising given the structure/youth).
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Hier soir au resto AVV Portovino du Quartier 10-30 de Brossard, pour la fête de Bordeaux70 (Sylvain), en compagnie de Manon, TheDanny et Mike. Bouteille relevée depuis plus d`une semaine, soigneusement décanté (pas mal de dépôt et un peu de croute sur le côté de la bouteille) et mis en carafe 2 heures, remis en bouteille épaulée non rebouchée toute la journée et apportée au resto le soir pour accompagner les viandes lors du souper festif! Le premier verre à l`ouverture montre un monstre de densité et de concentration, beaucoup de tannins et une belle acidité….ça augure bien! Nez parfumé et bien en place. Beaucoup de fruits, du cèdre, des herbes et un peu de terre. En bouche, superbe! Beaucoup de fruits avec une belle pureté. Des cerises, des bleuets, du cèdre et un peu de boisé bien dosé. Les tannins sont bien enrobés et la finale immensément longue. Tout un vin, GRAND vin et ce pour plusieurs années…cette bouteille nous a donné un très beau moment. GRANDIOSE!
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tasted blind. Nose - coffee. French roast or something very aromatic mouth - very primary. a bruiser. zippy complex berry fruit. infanticide. I guessed young Pavie. Stash in the recesses of your cellar and forget it exists.
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During a Chateau Montrose dinner with Commanderie friends. This wine is climbing in my rating every time I taste it. Not nearly ready (best after 2025) but now the wine gives you a glimpse of what lies ahead. The tannins have softened alot, and secondary aromatics are starting to appear. A grand, masculine Medoc wine.
It's been a few years since this last crossed my path. 3 hours of decanting added a lot of flesh and softness, to this still youthful treat. The wine is fresh, clean, powerful and tannic. There is length and intensity, with a dusty, tannic finish. I'd wait until the wine hits 20, if you are seeking a more mature experience.
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Absolutely beautiful wine. This will need some (maybe many) more years in bottle, but this showed surprisingly well with a 4hr decant, but I also know that this was just a peak into its potential. Definitely hinted at the greatness this wine is destined for. Full and rich, crushed rocks and soft supple fruit with tremendous struture and balance. This is going to be special.
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Very appealing nose of cherries, blackcurrant, tobacco and cedar. Lots of tannin under the fruit which seems dominated by sour cherries and cassis plus a hint of earth. This is a wine not without sophistication and it has very good prospects of turning into a great wine with some additional 10-15 years in the cellars. Very good balance and a long persistent finish. 93-94p Tried it with some Comté cheese which took away a lot of the tannin and turned it into something much more welcoming.
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So tannic is sucks all the moisture out of your mouth. Do not drink upon opening or you’ll get barnyard, nutmeg, with a golden shower finish that leaves your wondering if you should like it or not. We are wine cougars and like them young, but this one needs a few more years in the bottle.
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Deep ruby. Generously provided by the chateau. Very closed at the moment and it is unyielding and ultra tannic. No pleasure whatsoever. Touch of white flowers but monolithic dark hard fruit at the moment. Very different from my previous experience and I am hoping the wine will revive again n due course. Leave alone for at least a few years.
Great potential here, but very young still. Rating this as highly as the Palmer 2004 last night based on potential, but in many ways enjoyable already. Dense black fruit, cassis, earth, and a sweet but tannic finish.
cassis, Violet and cocoa, darken earth, rolls over the coffee'd palate with a gentle bitterness at the back end. some barn yard funky bits, but clean as. Tannin flow large and bold, clean but impeccable. A big baby
Tremendous evolution in 6 years since I last had this wine. The 05s are beginning to open up with 2 hours in the decanter. Deep ruby color, the nose is opulent with dark red berries, black currants, and nutmeg. On the palate very well structured and powerful, builds momentum, exploding with fruit and acidity, tannins quite present but velvety, and a long finish.
13% abv. Medium ruby, very expressive aromas. Cherry, leather and cassis dominate a pleasing palate impression. This brooding wine retains a strong tannic structure - should continue to improve for many years.
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This wine isn't palatable just yet. It needs time and lots of it. The nose and finish are already hynotizing. However, aggressive is an understatement for what it is on the palate. 7-9-17
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Grand Cru Cabernet (pyrmont wharf, sydney): savoury blackcurrant, biscuit, very slight leather notes, crushed rock, touches of meatiness. Savoury, juicy, drying talc textured tannins Long with a bit of spice and warmth on the finish Muted fruit but this is quite closed - needs a good decant to show its true colours I would suspect.
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Dark red; nose somewhat subdued, dark fruit; pleasant rounded attack with light tannic bite at the end (after a couple of hours in the decanter - to begin with much more tannic); very good
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Tasted after 2011-2010-2009-2008. Ruby colour with a little garnet on the edges. Beautiful nose of vanilla, toast, blackfruit,graphite and leather. Palate: quiet aggressive on the attack, dense, with maturing flavours. Dusty tannins, and very dry finish!
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Tasted after 2010, 2009, 2008 Montrose. Dark core, hints of evolution around the rim. On the nose quite sweet fruit, tobacco, spices, cedar, earth, graphite. Quite expressive and open with very good depth. On the palate quite big and dense, great concentration of fruit, good acidity. Grippy, but well integrated tannins. Very long and detailed finish. Still rather young, but starting to open up. Very impressive. 94-95+
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Deep ruby, lighter toward the rim. Layers of complex aromas. Blackberry, black cherry, bramble, graphite, old leather, menthol. High acid and medium plus, well integrated (after a day of slow ox and two hours in a decanter,) dusty tannins. Balanced, but another half decade in the bottle would pay dividends.
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My third vintage of this wine (2005, 2007, 2008). Very traditional, very long and with wonderful, dark, fruit, and slightly sweeter than the 2008. The change of management 2006 is quite obvious in the 2008, as the 2008 is a lot more modern. From a small bottle. Requires a week of slowox.
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Chateau Montrose with Mr. Herve Berland (Ripple Restaurant in DC): Intense nose displaying crème de cassis, ink, coffee, mint, dill, mocha, lead pencil, a hint of cedar and dark spices. Excellent concentration, unctuous and chewy, layers up layers of intense dark fruit, bright acidity, strong presence of mineral and an incredible long intense cassis driven finish. For me, the most intense, bold and structured wine of the night. Really impressive. It is enjoyable with the youthful opulent fruit but will need another five to ten years to reach the youthful peak. Really impressive.
1 juledagsfylla med Bdx: Dark ruby, very deep colour. Lots of dark fruit on the nose, espresso beans, ink, ripe blackberry and cassis. This wine is so powerful on the palate with lots of concentration and density. It is hard to believe this wine has become 11 years already and I would say you at least have to wait another 5 for its drinking window to open. Letting it bread for three and a half hours wasn’t enough. But still, so much potential.
With air, and effort, smoke, tobacco, wet earth, cassis, blackberry, spice box, thyme and a hint of truffle make their wine from the glass. Full bodied, concentrated, powerful, tanninc, balanced and refined, in a masculine way, the wine requires another decade to soften and become civilized. That being said, I'm sure your patience will be rewarded.
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Dark dark color in this 10+ year old Cab Merlot blend. Lots of smoke, black fruits whiff of loam/leather. Nice mouth feel and good balance of acids and fruit but not as extracted as I expected given the color.
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Amazingly beautiful to look at and sniff in the glass. Very youthful appearance. Deep, dark crimson color, intensely focused dry fruit that is hidden behind a wall of tannin...and this makes me smile. Razor like acid. This is so structured, so young, so firm, so elegant and so precise. Long finish, with lots of grip that won't let go...and this obviously has a long life ahead of it. Not even a hint that this wine is in its maturity window. Score will go higher in a few years.
Popped cork early in the day, then decanted for dinner. Ready for business. Gorgeous nose of minerality, dark purple fruits, outstanding concentration and a long lingering finish. Absolutely gorgeous! Drink w long decant or over next 15 yrs.
Serious wine, instigating and of unmatched finesse. Initially brought red meat, bacon, mushrooms and ripe blackberry. Later on it started opening up into more complex layers such as cherry and mentholated raspberries, peppermint, rosemary, caramel and burnt peanuts, with floral nuances of acacias. Full and velvety entry on palate but rapidly becoming astringent, from front to back, revealing massive tanins, backed up by precise acidity and alcoholic punch. All this structure restrains the palate a bit, but reveals, with intensity, sweet blackberry, licorice, wet dirt and graphite, leading to a long finish, sophisticated, with tobacco, vanilla and spices. Will be huge in 3 to 4 years. 95-97
This is amazing stuff. Putting the infanticide aside, this is a dream wine. It's got it all, dark fruits, red currants, graphite, espresso. The palate is packed with fruits and thick tannins ensuring a long finish. This is one for the library. Leave it alone if you can resist the temptation. 95+
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Decant for 3 hours, but clearly not enough. Drink over 2 hours and it keeps improving. Med+, Minerals, tobacco, gravels, complex and very long finishing.
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De "bon" à "excellent" au fur et à mesure des minutes. Ouvrir 1h avant consommation. Encore très jeune.Très puissant mais néanmoins très agréable. Dans 5 ans, il sera énorme...
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Chateau Montrose 2005: Ripe blackcurrants, mint leaves intermingled with leathery hide. Cigar box notes come to mind with also a hint of toasty oak. The wine is juicy on the entry with enigmatic light footed fruits, vanillin and camphor on the finish. Still grainy tannins, but overall great balance of fruit and acidity. Approachable now but could and should be left to evolve over the next decade or so. #sommelier #montrose
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garnet, in color. earth, wet soil, clove, baking spices, dark fruit, on the nose. blackberry, raspberry, clove, spice, oak, on the palate. medium plus acid, medium plus tannins, on this tight finish. this wine needs at least 5-10 years to soften.
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19th Annual Lyon 10 Year Retrospective (Chez Lyon in Eugene, OR): The 93 score was from day 2. In this blind tasting and despite the 18 hr double decant, this particular bottle was a brute. Very dark, tight, and tannic. You had to use a little imagination to get much out of it. It still has a purple color in its core. There's cassis, cigar box, and some tar mixed with espresso. Blind, I gave it 90 pts during the tasting. It was obviously better on day two and seems to have even more potential, our co-tasters agreed it was great. Give this to your children...
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Annual Comparative Bordeaux Tasting (2000/2005) (Chicago, IL): This was very similar to the 2000 in that it was earth-driven and slightly barnyardy. On the other hand, it seems that a bit of the acidic lift has been traded in for sweeter and riper fruit. Easy to see this is darker and more heavily focussed on the black fruit end of the spectrum.
2015 New York Wine Experience Trip; 10/19/2015-10/27/2015 (New York City, NY): A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc and 0.5% Petit verdot, this 10-year-old wine (sampled from a bottle ex-château) tastes like a newly-released Bordeaux. Opaque crimson and packed with crème de cassis, licorice, graphite, plum, tobacco and earth, it delivers its flavor payload on a full-bodied, freshly acidic, harmoniously alcoholic, firmly tannic frame. Mouth-coating and impressively dense in the middle, it closes with impressive length but also with substantial tannic grip. This will be a long-lived wine that will require another decade or so to reach plateau. Drink 2025-2045.
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Fruit is ripe and forward (by BdX standards), dark fruits, graphite, tobacco, cassis...long finish. Tannins still integrating, wine is still a few years away from its prime drinking window (in my opinion), should be very nice in time
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Pulled the cork Friday morning on a bottle previously accessed via Coravin, slow-ox and consumed Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Bottom line for me this just is not ready - it shows some potential, heavy and regal purple in the glass, on the palate some red fruits, leather, spice, Cuban cigar. But it just never fully seemed to be open for business, pretty restrained nose. I have almost 2 cases of this and I will try to not touch any until 2020, however I realistically do not think this will offer true enjoyment before 2025. This really is for the long term and I have my fingers crossed it shows better in a few years time.
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Montrose dinner (Singapore): This was tight as a drum. We returned a first bottle as it seemed corked but was not too convinced about the second bottle either. Plenty of wood, was only drinkable with food. Needs much more time (10 years?).
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Had a glass for lunch next to Leoville Poyferre 2005. I had a clear preference for the latter (which I rated 95). However, the Montrose is certainly a fantastic wine but it feels that this one will really benefit from another 5-10 years before you get rewarded. It feels a bit (too) reserved and diplomatic right now - compared to the Poyferre the fruit was barely noticeable. Although a good wine I really hope this one improves with age as I have almost 2 cases left. Time will tell... I have a half bottle left of this one as I accessed via Coravin - I will look to give the remaining bottle a healthy decant of 5 hours + (for this tasting it was pop and pour and left in glass for half an hour). .
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A big, juicy, mineral driven, blackberry filled, tobacco, smoke, cigar box, Asian spice, Cuban cigar and cassis filled perfume lets you know you’re not in OZ anymore. This is concentrated, full bodied, powerful, rich, intense and very tannic. Yet, the tannins are so ripe, there is so much rich fruit, the wine can be enjoyed today if you like a primary drinking experience. It’s lush, mouth filling, regal and refined.
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A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, and a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot shows excellent complexity and also massive tannins. Very rustic nose and palate (reminds me of an obscure Languedoc). Medium body with notes of barnyard, lead, raspberry, eucalyptus, chocolate covered blueberries, and minerals. A 5 hour decant only hinted at this wines future potential.
Bordeaux Confidential USA, nose of cigar box, black currants, mocha, and allspice, more of the same on the palate, big body, mouth coating fruit, just lovely, at it's best with a minimum decant to promote the bouquet, almost elegant, great complexity, long, long finish and flavorful aftertaste.
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Bordeaux Confidential SF (SF): decanted 3 hours in advance) 54% cab 46% merlot Star-bright gorgeous ruby-red in the glass. On the nose, bretty, and a bit of lambic character (some refermentation in the bottle?). On the palate, undeniably great balance. Alcohol is only 13.2% but feels a bit more elevated. It makes sense to me that this is dominated by cabernet - it’s ripe, it’s full, but with less of the fur coat of Merlot. Less plummy, dominated by tart dark cherry. But still a bit plush. Oak isn’t apparent to me. Good structure, aggressive tannins, ripe fruit. Score: Around 9.
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(Decanter's Bordeaux '05, '09, '10 tasting) :: My wine of the event. It is all here! The bouquet just fills the glass and is revealing a complete panoply of flavours. Very sweet & ripe tannins, balanced with incredible earth, minerals and clay, forest, mushroom, lifted aromatic herbs, flowers, a hint of mint. Exceptional.
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Tasted at the Zachys Bordeaux Confidential tasting on 5/14/15. This was one of the best reds I tasted that evening. Cherries, mushrooms. Medium-bodied, well integrated and long, chewy finish. Terrific.
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Way more impressive than the 2009 had at the same lunch, much more approachable but after all is a Montrose and their wines take so long to come around! Beautiful ruby with a very delicate perfume of ripe heathy Cassis fruit. Lovely mouthfeel and balance, great length and flavour. Sell 2009 to buy this better vintage!
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The 2005 Montrose is a young classic from this great property. The nose is still properly primary and reserved, with fresh, perfectly ripe blackcurrant fruit, graphite, rich soil tones, hints of cigar ash and a nice framing of cedary new oak. Dense, deep, concentrated and very pure, this wine is savoury and structured—an archetypically masculine Montrose that is surely destined to emerge as a benchmark in the decades to come.
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Mini vertical of 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2012. More detail to the nose than the 2010. Spices, tobacco, liquorice and smoke. A bit more approachable on the palate as well, still quite firm and grippy, but no hard edges. Great structure, fresh and powerful, quite savoury with great length. Needs time. 93-94+
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31 Vintages of Château Montrose: 1928-2010; 5/2/2015-5/3/2015: Big, complex smell, dark berries. This turned out to be surprisingly open for a ’05, wonderfully balanced, intense and long. Big ball of fruit, yet elegant. Will become even more glorious.
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Commanderie de Bordeaux dinner. Dark ruby. Discrete nose of spices, dark fruit with some foresty spicy tone, brooding and complex. On the palate medium bodied "only" which may surprise you given the vintage but and with still gripping tannins. Ripe fruit while keeping a medium body with excellent balance and freshness really is the hallmark of the 2005 vintage. Consistent to my last tasting note, open this from 2020 onwards.
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Tasted single blind. From the nose I had this down as St Estephe. It was in a line up with one other St Estephe and some other from St Julien. From coravin after half an hour in glass I noted shy on the nose a bit medicinal, on palate berries, mainly red, and a hint of vanilla. I guessed this to be the Cos 2006, which in this instance was better. After half an hour additional time in glass I noted improving. I withhold rating as I think this unlike the Cos 06 needs decanting, serious decanting, 3-5 hours I reckon, or wait another 10 years, these 2005s are just not ready yet.
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Decanted for three hours before pouring. I knew this was still young but wanted to see how it tasted at the ten year point. Deep dark purple, color consistent with it being very young still. Nose was big, with a ton of dark fruit, particularly dark cherries and blackberries. Palate was a combination of very big fruit, but larger than life tannins. This wine could age for a lot longer, the tannins are very grippy. Whenever the glass was empty we could smell barnyard, which would be overtaken by fruit if we poured more into the glass.
This is a bold wine with serious length. Plenty of fruit that will persist as the tannins gradually resolve. We will open the next bottle of this in 2-3 years to see how it develops.
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2005 Red Bordeaux with Richard Brazier (Handford Wines, London): Dark red in colour. Glossy. Young wine, but its opening up. Mineral, rich fruit and show very nicely even at this very very young stage. Light spice. Classy and elegant wine very similar to Cos albeit a touch more linear at this stage than the more giving Cos. No oak feel. Give this beauty time, 5yrs minimum or 10 better. 93 for now but watch the numbers grow with time.
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Dark fruit, some minerality on the nose, also showing spices and graphite. Grippy and pretty firm on the palate, backward, powerful tannins, again mineral, great structure, very long. Needs time, but lots of potential. 94-95+
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Bordeaux 2005 : Ten years on (Bordeaux Index London): A more substantial palate, tasted after Calon Segur. Focused. with ripe, high tannin, pronounced flavors and aromas of red and black fruit, and power and structure on the full bodied and long finishing palate. This is built to last and a top wine from 2005. Not quite as wow like as LLC, but in that ballpark.
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Tight as a drum but started to open up after a few hours. Time will tell if this will rival the 2009. Fruit is there but too much structure for now. Maybe time will mellow it out.
You will be shaking every drop from the glass with this one. It has an opaque core and on the meniscus, at 9 years old, is a hint of mauve suggesting slow ageing and exceptional cellaring. After an hour in the decanter the nose was fully open offering up roses,gravel and a core of black cherries, blackcurrant and raspberries. I must admit to a having a life long preference for this "cusp of maturity" in Bordeaux. The palate was solid, full bodied and elegant. A masculine wine. The tannins were huge but unobtrusive.There was great intensity of fruit perhaps not surprising in this drought year. The length was also exceptional. Coravin first pour. 16 degrees C. Riedel Bordeaux glasses. Delicious. Parker in a tasting this year gives it 96 with a window of 2014 to 2064! The cork was pulled 3 days later at Tetsuya's with the same impressions as above.
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Huge, tannic brooding wine with fantastic concentration - this needs more time. Red and black fruits, minerals, graphite and touch of cedar. Long long finish.
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Taste during a Wine advocate event - A matter of taste. Dark purple. Discrete but complex nose of wet forest floor, some barnyard notes with dark fruit and earth, similar to a Latour. Medium-full bodied with gripping but ripe tannins, excellent length and good balance. Decant for 2h if you plan to drink it or wait until 2020. Similar to the 2010 in style but not as silky and precise.
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Dark, big and brooding. Quite closed at this point of time. Suggest holding any bottles for some while before opening. Very good potential for the future.
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Way up there with a nose of abundant flavours and offset against a current near ideal balance of alcohol and acidity that in themselves are a testament to this exceptional this wine is. Fine and distinct tannins that complement rather than detract from the mouthfeel of the wine, and a spiced perfumed mid palate enjoins a long finish. A great vintage for a great Chateau.
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If you like truffle with your cigars, you came to right place. From a blend of 65% Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc and just a dab of Petit Verdot at 05%, the wine is deep, long and concentrated with the needed structure and ample tannins to age. There is a lot of depth of raw material, but this requires serious time in the cellar to come around and be fun to taste.
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Young and full promises, this superbly balanced wine offers a deep, inky, ruby core and fragrant aromas of black currant, cinnamon as well as notes of Indian spice. Berries, chocolatey spice and licorice are the dominant flavors of this full bodied beauty with loads of lush tannins and an oh so unctuously soft texture. The long silky finish does not fail to live up to expectations either. This is a wonderful effort and yet another masterpiece of this epic vintage. It is already drinking exquisitely but won't reach its peak for another three years, where it should stay comfortably for three decades.
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Montrose tasting with Herve Berland (HK Wine Vault): Young and likely still in the resting phase, but opened rather nicely and a pleasure to try at the tasting. The dark purple gem opened up with energetic cassis, earth, cedar and mesmerizing note of rose petal, a soothing touch to a wine that's sharp and deep. Excellently balanced palate, rich texture, packed with black cherry, wood, truffle and spice. Structured tannic spine, all elements pointing towards a great wine in the future.
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Over dinner. Typical Montrose in early years, with really great nose of red berries, menthol, earth, currant. Palate still quite dry with big rich cherry fruit and smoke. Day 2 still quite tannic, not giving up much. Very classical and powerful, much like the '00 vintage. Will be great, most likely a 95-97 in five years.
Superbe Bordeaux, élégant, intense, costaud, raffiné...impressionnant même. Le nez est sur la terre, le fenouil, les mures et la truffe avec une belle rasade d`épices sucrées. Enn bouche, ample, concentré et puissant, les tannins sont charnus mais bien enrobés et assez granuleux. Un beau fruit mur et corquant avec du graphite et une belle acidité enveloppe complètement le palais. Superbement long et tout simplement délicieux. Sera grandiose dans 5-7 ans!
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Like the 2009 roughly 65% CS, 30% merlot. More noticeable berry aromas. This is superb wine. It is not as opulent as the 2009 but is extremely well balanced and very long, rich and powerful. It still needs a long time, but is starting to show a glimpse of its potential.
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This is a classical wine! Concentrated bouquet with ripe dark fruits, cedar, spices etc. On the palate concentrated and juicy cassis and other dark fruits. A lot of good acidity and firm tannin which is drying in the finish. Forget about this wine at least until 2020. This will definitely be even greater around 2024+ Score 94++
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La Fête du Bordeaux - 2011 Vintage (Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, Chicago): Just a touch green and fumy on the nose. Sweet and grapey fruit on the palate, growing brighter and fresher through the finish. This has much life ahead of it, but there are also some advanced notes. Odd wine, showing some interest and quality, but not nearly enough for the price.
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The most enjoyable wine tasting experiences are usually due to a discovery. It could be a vintage not previously tasted, or a wine could show better and I am forced to rethink my view on that wine. 2005 Montrose tasted last night has me singing me a different tune. Previously, I found the wine impressive, but tannic and masculine. It lacked elegance. That's not my opinion today.
Licorice, earth, truffle, cassis and spice aromas required little effort to bring them out. Full bodied and intensely concentrated, this still tannic wine sported a muscular personality, but it was refined and elegant, in a masculine way. The long, powerful, ripe, round, dense finish remained on our palate for over 40 seconds, This will require decades to mature, but due to the ripeness and finesse of the tannins, fans that cannot wait for full maturity will enjoy an outstanding Bordeaux wine. I prefer 2003 Montrose, but make no mistake, 2005 Montrose is an outstanding Bordeaux wine.
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Montose Dinner (89, 90, 95, 96, 99, 00, 01, 05) Plus Others: I expected the worst after the 2000, but this showed surprisingly well. Red fruit and oak on the nose, but enjoyable. More red fruit and oak on the palate, but more like the '01 than the '00. Great texture and nice balance, but with tons of tannin from the mid-palate to the finish. Needs many years, but still showed surprisingly well.
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Color is a wonderful claret light red/purple. The nose shows a nice definition of minerality and poise. Lead pencil, touch of dried leather, herbs and dark fruits. The palate shows an old world class with wonderful depth and power but great precision. Drinking wonderfully now despite substantial tannic structure.
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rett fra flasken, nydelig opulent og fokusert nese, masse modne og sødmefulle solbær, bly og en fin steinmineralitet. Svært elegant nese. I munnen svært konsentrert, høy syre og kraftige tanniner. Balanseres av flott frukt. Ganske stram vin. Lang. En klar lagrigskandidat. Dekantert 6 timer. Nesen er ganske lik. I munnen flott konsentrert og dyp frukt, masse solbær og mocca. 95p. Det som overrasket meg mest med vinen var hvordan den presterte dag 2. Frukten hadde tørket en del inn. Det kan skyldes at det var lite vin igjen i karaffelen for dette oppleves som en klar lagringskandidat.
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Luxurious and creamy bouquet with a lot of luxurious oak and some smoke; very tempting. On the palate black fruits and firm but round tannin which still needs (a lot of) time. A full bodied and great wine with a lot of potential. Wait at least until 2020. 93++
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Last tasted about three years ago. Three years ago it was unpleasantly backward and tannic, with almost no fruit. But now the unmistakeable black currant fruit has emerged. A sweet perfume is also there. It's still too young and backward to recommend to drink. But this wine is guaranteed to mature into something special.
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Nose is already showing some secondary charecter, mushrooms, red fruits, a little barnyard Palate- Tooth coating tannins, medium red fruit, cherry, high acidity Medium finish I'd give this one 10-15 years in the cellar 94+?
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CT Wisconsin Offline 2; 10/5/2012-10/6/2012 (Madison, WI): Fairly reticent nose and palate, ample smooth tannins. This probably has more to show with further aging, but what comes through now is rather generic and unpromising. Still, there is nothing unpleasant here at all. Tasted blind. Group #9 of 10, my #7 of 10.
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Cos-Montrose Battle (Restaurant Bottles, Sas van Gent): Inky, dense and sultry, earthy, great spicebox component, wonderful mystique nose. In the mouth this is very much overdone, lots of make-up. Very tannic, mountains of oak, needs a lot of time. Fantastic nose, brutal palate. 18-18.5/20
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Youthful purple with a slightly garnet rim. Vivid nose with evident new oak around black fruit and mint. Dense. Lovely texture with refreshing acidity, fruit purity and firm fine-grained tannins. Fat and fresh. Intense with a bright future. My kind of wine.
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dont attempt to open tis bttl unless u hve excess $.its a great bttl but far too young to drnk.tis bttl mite slightly outshine the gruaud larose 00 in time to cm.pls read my gruaud larose 00 tasting notes
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Decanted for 3 hours, very youthful purplish dark burgundy color. Exotic nose of tobacco, red earth, cassis and spices. Very soft entry on palate but very tannic, very mineral, not to be touched for another few years as the fruit is subdued by the massive tannins. Very powerful wine but way too young.
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Chateau Montrose vertical (Tower Club): Alcohol :: 13% I was surprised how expressive the nose was: the aroma is nothing but exotic and complex: tobacco, sandalwood, smoke meat, leather, creme de cassis, blackcurrant liquor, mushroom and floral at the background. Structured, highly intense and powerful but well delineated and refine. This has superb sappiness on the palate with endless layer of sweet dark fruits, mineral and dry extract all wrapped in an ultra fine package. Massive level of tannin here, but the tannin is chewy, sweet along with firm polished structured that will permit it to continue evolve for the next 2decades. The finish was a little bit tight but offer better juiciness and great length when it opened up more. 94-95
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I opened this out of curiousity, just to see how does a top wine from a top vintage taste at such an early stage, given the fact that I have another 3 in my cellar. Very dark, opaq color. Liquorice, ink, graphite and dark berries on the nose. Full bodied, with incredable concentration and extract, very firm but of excellent quality tannins, high acidity and an almost endless aftertaste. At its current stage it tastes more like a wine concentrate than a real wine. Amazing potential, but I do not intend to open the next bottle before at least 5 years. I scored this wine somewhere between its current enjoyability (say 93) and its future potential (say 97). On day 2, the nose was fruitier and the tannins had softened, allowiing the fruit to shine on the palate as well. A majestic pairing with risotto and roast lamb.
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Montrose Vertical Tasting 1989 - 2005 (Work in Progress) (Switzerland): Tasted blind: Very dark in color. Nose of leather, berries and dark fruits (plums). The wine still shows quite hard tannins as one would expect from a 2005 of this quality. The wine is concentrated and long, showing wonderful flavors of dark chocolate, dark berries and tar/smoke. At the moment quite backward. I am quite certain that this will be a blockbuster Montrose once it finds its blance/harmony. Still very youthful. Drink 2020 - 2040
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Tasted on the 12th April 2011. This wine had incredibly seductive nose of truffles and cocoa powder, strong backbone, powerful attitude, iron strong structure, wonderful balance and mega long finish. A fantastic example of how exceptional this vintage really is!
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Monthly Miscellaneous Bordeaux Tasting (K&L Wines, San Francisco): Deep ruby. Closed but some creosote and anise-one of those wines where you'd swear that you can actually smell the tannins. Dry but incredible extract and underlying blackberry confit. Long with ripe, round tannins and some perceptible wood which will surely be absorbed over time. Outstanding potential but it must be decades away from maturity. Despite this, it is not too severe to taste and appreciate now, which is quite different than old style St. Estephes.
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Deep purple colour with lovely elegant and complex dark fruit and oak nose. Fabulously intense blackcurrant flavour with a hint of liquorice. Tannins present but very smooth. I think in a few more years it will be incredible. One of the most enjoyable bottles of Bordeaux wine I have ever drank.
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When opened the wine was medium ruby with a rim wiht purple highlights, the next day if I'm not mistaken the colour deepened dramatically to become almost opaque! Nose is very youthful and of medium intensity with aromas of excellent new oak dominating. Fruit is red, concentrated and there are also sweet spice and floral notes. Very focused and tight. In the mouth it is medium + bodied with ripe silky tannins, vanilla and creamy oaky flavours are supported by ample fruit and both are balanced by quite high acidity. Wine of elegance and finesse at the moment and in no way a monster. Still not even approaching readiness to drink as it is rather tight, focused and oak needs integration, yet it is still a pleasure to drink.
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Caramel, spice, black currants, black cherry and tobacco notes make up the nose. Tannic, full bodied and concentrated, as well as tight. Not very expressive in the mouth. This wine is sleeping and needs at least another decade before it beings to open. This is not in the class of the great vintages for Montrose like 89, 90 or 03
Impressively deep purple hue with a ruby rim exhibiting elegance and finesse! Complex nose with meaty, dusty and mineral overtone leading to an outburst of very dark fruit with black currant, blackberry, black cherry aromas adorned by some subtle but noticeable black licorice undertone. First reaction is barn-yard manure coupled with rocky, earthy soil on a vegetable farm. The bouquet shows some vanilla chocolate, cedar, leather and cigar box components. It is a warm, intense and spicy nose overall, which shows the full power and sturdiness of St. Estèphe and this great Château! All of these translate into a full-bodied wine, very rich and viscous on the palate. The attack is tannic but opens up quickly. It's like taking a bitter chocolate bite, followed by an explosion of opulent fruits with lots of black currant, black cherry, ripe plum and licorice. There's bracing acidity and firm tannins on the mid-palate, forming a solid and balanced structure supporting the other nuances. Very long finish and the intense heat persists for almost 20 seconds before the panoply of balanced acidity, licorice, leather, cigar box and layers upon layers of fruit shows up harmoniously. Excellent depth and complexity on the finish! Great longevity: this wine will evolve gracefully in your cellar for years to come. Already accessible with decanting, but best after 2014.
P.S. Caught a bad cold the very next day... couldn't smell just about everything else in the world, but the nose of the wine was still going strong! Amazing intensity!.... then after a week in the bottle (with a stopper on) when I got my smell back, the wine still maintained its structure and vibrant fruit characters. You can of course feel the oxidation, but it was still quite nice!
Bordeaux meets Burgundy (King Eddy Toronto): Preferred the '06 in a side by side. This was extremely dry and had no release as the fruit was buried (deep) in the swath of tannin. Keep forever?
Score may be impacted by tasting with the humbling 2000 Montrose. Still, a great wine in it's own right. Purple color and a little tight despite 2 hrs+ in the decanter. Great flavors and length, will hold for decade(s).
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Opened 18 hours before drinking. I limit the air flows by put the air in plastic bag covered the top of the bottle.
Hints a bit of new technology smell then gone. Typical young and old style of Montrose scent, tannin, less fruit but mild wood, earth, good deep and dramatic. Still plenty of delicate tannin, very good balance, firm structure, firm texture. These elements can hold on for 50-60 years from now. Aftertaste is beautiful, deep, firm but not aggressive, long...long finished. The promising one !!!
Opaque; black as night. Very concentrated blackberry, cassis, earth, but still very tight after a four hour decant. To be expected I suppose. Gripping tannins. I didn't score this one, but I'm sure it'll be beautiful in about twenty years.
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Umm....This is a truly classic Montrose since it cames back to basic in 2004.
Yes !!! I get back to stick with it again. For 2nd Growth, Montrose is No.1....the terroir, the texture, the great aging time.
A bottle of 1955 is still very nice today, far beyond from others....
This 2005 is the greatest Montrose for me, classic nose of Montrose, very deep but not so clean because I can not get through the wonderful scents intermixed.
Flowery, amazing round wooden scent, dramatic. I hardly can't take my nose out of a glass...very seductive and sexy.
Lovely full-bodied, silky texture, perfect ABC, elegant and delicate tannin. Too young but wonderful...beautifully well-made.
Aftertaste is Burgundy...soft, smooth and long finished nearly 2 minutes or more.... . . . Open 24 hours...Drink now - 2040....or more....97+/100...... " You cool my desire "
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What a difference between the Montrose and the Cos, the two stars of St. Estephe. Montrose tends to be less showy, less velvety when young, but more brooding. This was a case in point, at least from barrel. The first impression was of tannic bite, but then I realized the sheer power of this wine with a focus not unlike that of the Latour. With 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 31% Merlot (plus a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot), this wine showed backbone. It will certainly turn out to be something special after its barrel aging. Not quite as refined as the Cos.
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BORDEAUX 2005 / Cabernet rules; 4/5/2006-4/10/2006 (Bordeaux): What a difference between the Montrose and the Cos, the two stars of St. Estephe. Montrose tends to be less showy, less velvety when young, but more brooding. This was a case in point. The first impression was of tannic bite, but then I realized the sheer power of this wine with a focus not unlike that at Latour. With 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 31% Merlot (plus a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot), this wine showed backbone, and will certainly turn out to be something special after its barrel aging. Still, not as impressive as the Cos this year. 93-96
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2005 Bordeaux en Primeur; 3/26/2006-3/28/2006 (Bordeaux France): En Primeur tasting. Brooding black fruit is massively powerful, but with firm tannins followed by more firm tannins. I find it tough tasting Montrose young, so probably didn't fully appreciate this wine. I think it will need to 2020 or later, 90-92 point potential, but everybody I was with liked this far more than I did today, so it probably much better.
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5/4/2024 - SARED wrote: 95 Points
94-95 Still youthful, but delightful. Decanted four hours and back in the bottle for another 6. Drank out of Grassl Liberte (a much better choice than the oversized Cru). Very lithe, smooth and balanced. Fruit barely peaking out, but just so balanced with a medium-to-long finish. 13% alc feels underpowered to modern monsters, but then you realize you can drink the whole bottle without any conundrums, and that’s great. Lovely at a French bistro with chicken liver mousse and duck frites. I’d say “next one in five years”, but I know it will happen sooner (I have a lot). Ultimately, a baby, but not an ugly baby!
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4/29/2024 - Musigny151 wrote:
Opened Saturday to check progress.
Bloody hell, laddie, this one is tight. A black hole of a wine; nothing escapes. One hour in a decanter and a couple of wisps of something aromaish deigns to make an appearance. Too faint to be recognizable. Another hour, those wisps have coalesced enough to show some fruit and a little spice. This is not fun.
Another hour, and dinner has been on the table for half of it. We have poured the wine into glasses, it is still bad tempered and showing little.
Another hour and the wine has decided not to fight quite as hard. It is still massive, the tannins are hard but not spiky, and now the wine is showing plenty of fruit, spice and licorice. Still I feel there is a lot hidden.
This was all about potential and had little to do with pleasure. I did have a final glass 6 hours in, and it was still not fully open, but far and away the best tasted. I have five bottles left, and it needs ten years plus, probably more.
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3/28/2024 - essenceofreal wrote:
Decided to crack into my case and check on this.
Wow was it young! This has soooo much more in store. If drinking now I'd decant on a frying pan for a week before consuming.
Clearly a great wine, or it will be in about 10 years when it starts to calm down and integrate. I won't be touching these for about a decade.
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3/21/2024 - RayOB Likes this wine: 95 Points
Drank in London
A real beauty
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2/27/2024 - chatters wrote:
Chateau Montrose Tasting (Bentley Bar & Restaurant, Sydney): Polished, rich and generous nose shows good quality oak, sweet spice, bacon fat, blackcurrant, plums a little violet, smells younger than the 2011, touch of clay. Juicy and generous here on the palate as well, a little savoury, almost salted liquorice notes joins the black hued fruits, tannins are woody, talc textured and super persistent, a little sous bois joins on the finish with the liquorice slightly more pronounced. Pretty clever
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2/16/2024 - finediningnyc Likes this wine: 94 Points
A 3 hour decant has 05 Montrose showing beautifully, wafting layers of cassis, cedar, saddle leather and mocha with a silky and vibrant palate and fine grained tannins. Still so young but in a real nice spot.
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1/20/2024 - WineTraveler42 Likes this wine: 95 Points
A delightful wine! Opened the bottle at noon, decanted at 5pm. Started drinking at 8pm. Stunning. Brick color. Tannins are smooth and well integrated. Musk, leather, saffron, smoke, subtle vanilla and licorice. Cedar well in the background. Still some floral notes of violet that intoxicate and leave you wanting one more sip! After an hour, forest floor, mushroom, umami and moss. Wow! A delightful experience. But this wine has a long runway in front of it. Will be interesting to follow over time.
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1/14/2024 - dsimmons Likes this wine: 93 Points
My first of three and I believe it needs more time to really show its best. Double decanted for 7 hours. Still a beast, but wit complexity and potential showing through.
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1/1/2024 - Hugo Hilde Likes this wine: 95 Points
Bordeaux + Napa pirates (Tøyen, Oslo): Slow oxed 7 hours, followed 5 hours
Noble, understated nose with dark berries, bacon fat, baked tomato and a bevy of peppery spices.
Uniform palate, archetypical Medoc, cherry pits, so much minerality. Dark and serious, though never heavy, with a very long finish. So much class.
Surpise, surpise, this needs more cellar time, Montrose is truly a long term proposition.
95 for now, should be even better in fullness of time.
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12/25/2023 - Darbus123 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Totally agree with other comments below, this is absolutely brilliant but really only starting to inch into its drinking window, which will surely be long. I hope I can hold back for 5 years!
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12/10/2023 - zimmy07 Likes this wine: 96 Points
This is so damn good!!! needs many more years, but decanted for 6 hours (needed 10 hours, for real). a bit sweet, big sappy red fruits, massive volume to this wine, very primary still but this wine will be insane in 15 years. For the price point tough to find a better wine
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11/24/2023 - JRavn Likes this wine: 97 Points
A wine in complete balance still with freshness. Amazing with dark berries, minerality, cedar.
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10/19/2023 - dcwino wrote: 97 Points
Fathers' Gathering (Q by Peter Chang - Bethesda, Maryland): Youthful expressive nose displaying intense black and blue fruit, crème de cassis, crushed blueberry, latte, a hint of mint, lead pencil, cedar, cabernet floral dust, sweet spices and crushed rocks. Excellent concentration, layers upon layers of intense black and blue fruit, silky and fluid, beautiful balance and detail, perfect amount of acidity, strong mineral, very fine tannins and a long intense black and blue fruit driven mineral finish with a hint of rose at the end. Although it can easily improve for another decade or two, this is starting to drink beautifully. If you find sub $175 at auction, perhaps the wine to buy. Highly recommend.
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9/28/2023 - MariusA Likes this wine: 93 Points
Had this bottle at Bouchon in Vegas. Delicious but still a bit harsh and angular. Unfortunately, it didn't get a lot of time to open up. I suspect my score would have been higher had it had 3-4 hours in the decanter as opposed to the 30 mins it received. Give it some time.
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9/24/2023 - WineTraveler42 Likes this wine: 95 Points
This 2005 was elegant and complex. I do love Montrose, and we tasted this as part of a 2005 horizontal with Cos D’estournel and Cantanec Brown. The wine was double decanted three hours before serving. This beautiful wine continued to open up in the glass. Secondary aromatics were deep and pleasing - leather, cigar, cedar. But bright fruit also still present. I loved this wine - but I will wait another two years before opening another bottle. This big year still has time to evolve.
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9/10/2023 - Ohlawuly Likes this wine: 94 Points
Slow oxidation for 5 hours. It kept evolving for 5+ hours, until we finished it.
Deep garnet. Nose of red fruit, wet stones, coffee, and spices. This wine still had tight tannin and vivid acidity, but on the palate, it was pure and clean. The finish is long and juicy, with ignorable sweetness.
It is still young but will definitely go places. At least another 5-10 years are needed.
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9/3/2023 - hkbob Likes this wine: 96 Points
PnP is not the best way to get the most from this beautiful wine at such an early stage of its evolution, but sometimes circumstances dictate the need for speed. Having said that, the nose was immediately open for business with glorious red and dark fruit, burning embers, fresh tobacco and flowers. Lovely crystalline palate with wonderful fruit, silky, expressive tannins and fabulous length. This will be even better in about 5 years so will hopefully be able to keep my remaining bottles under lock and key until then... if not, a 2 hour decant will be in order.
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8/19/2023 - hoservin Likes this wine: 96 Points
Decanted for one hour. Nose of blackberry, currant, cedar, graphite, fig and anise. Ripe black and red fruit, graphite, cedar, anise and fine tannins on the palate. Extremely well balanced. Very long, layered finish. Medium to full bodied. Served with reverse seared picanha and blue cheese, black truffle butter.
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8/15/2023 - Plabella wrote: 98 Points
This is a beautiful expression of a St Estephe wine. The fruit is red and the body is fabulous.
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5/29/2023 - landonemory@gmail.com Likes this wine: 96 Points
I gave this a 9 hour slow ox. Then served it at a friend's house in which we drank it over a 3 hour window of time.
The bouquet immediately compelled my intrigue with glorious
aromas of violets , sage , basalmic , ripe figs. One of the most attractive gathering of smells I've ever experienced in a Bordeaux.
We couldn't stop whiffing it. My friend said this was the 5th time he has had the '05 Montrose and every one of them smelled just as amazing.
On the palate it was just as spectacular with such precision and purity of all elements coming together with no one component dominating. Blackberries, blueberries, and mission fig melded with savory thyme as a necessary graphite frame pulsed through the mid-palate and beyond .
Tannin , acidity , fruit and secondary flavors were all in harmony to create a fantastic wine experience. I give it 96 pts and ponder if it will get WAY better than this in the next decade. For me and my friend Nick it definitely doesn't need to wait any longer but the key to that conclusion is giving it lots of patience by slow ox as stated earlier. Maybe the only thing lacking is the finish could be even longer. It was a 15 second length.
On an extra note , we started our tasting by drinking a 2000 Leoville Las Cases followed by a 2002 Chateu Musar from Lebanon and then the 2005 Montrose. We left some of the first two bottles to revisit. The Musar was absolutely delightful and had an almost brandy like quality on the nose. The Las Cases was good but for some reason Las Cases has never performed as well as expected given the cost.
I would describe the '05 Montose as a girl next door kind of beauty that does seduce you but not in a slutty way. This was pure class and that's the way I prefer it to be.
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5/7/2023 - KVM wrote:
Very dark red. Graphite, cassis nose. Very large scaled and wrapped in a stern structure. See you in a decade!
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4/5/2023 - mchern02 wrote: 93 Points
4 hour decant. Very nice nose, a bit buttoned up but definitely graphie forward with excellent darker qualities and a hint of anise. This wine has a fairly broad structure, with nice dark fruit and good length. Young and still ageing slowly and gracefully, there is no rush on this wine and will almost certainly improve with more time.
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3/25/2023 - HeavyPourWine Likes this wine: 94 Points
From my cellar, drank and shared with friends at the High Museum Wine Auction. Decanted 30 mins and drank over the next hour. Surprisingly open after that short decant! Well integrated tannins, lovely nose. PLENTY of new world wines being poured at this event so brought something different for myself! Everyone I shared it with loved it! Randomly, the '03 Angelus was also being poured at the reception (by the winemaker!) amongst the sea of new world wines and I thought both of these old world wines showed similarly and were some of the best of the day.
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2/27/2023 - George246 wrote: 92 Points
Tannins obscure secondary flavors
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2/5/2023 - zimmy07 Likes this wine: 92 Points
Like the Rochioli SV I had same night, this was maybe the worst showing of the 2005 Montrose I have had. This wine is insanely great. great! This lacked the finesse and structure. This was muted, sappy red fruits, and needed time. This wine is a 97+pt wine, not tonight.... Risk of buying these on secondary markets which is where I got these
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2/2/2023 - fcxj wrote: 92 Points
Quite firm, needs more time.
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1/2/2023 - charleshg wrote:
Wonderful Wine that we had with a lovely Garlic Risotto with Lobster Cream, with the Gadaleta clan.
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11/19/2022 - englishman's claret wrote:
The conventional opinion was to give this a lot of time, but I preferred it at its outset for its cool, deep, intense black fruit and mineral. It still has oak to eat and it’s not super giving on the palate. Still very much an adolescent and I am sticking with my drinking window from my 2008 note - sit tight another 5 years. But a truly great vintage at Montrose? I’m not sure.
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10/7/2022 - rocknroller wrote:
Chateau Montrose: '78, '96, '05 & Champagne (Paris Dining Club, Mpls, MN): Very dark red/purple color. Drank a glass plus over 2 hours. The graphite really comes through on the nose with purple fruits, a little high toned on the nose. Black cherry, cassis, wood spice, rich, blackberry liqueur and black raspberry liqueur, scorched earth, big and dense with oak and firm tannins. This seemed to show better the first hour and then shut down more with the structure taking over and showing the tannins and oak that need to ultimately be tamed with more time. Lots of potential, and this showed better than expected at this point. No official score, but this has excellent upside, gut impression today is 93(++), but I fully expect this to live up to all the expectations if you wait long enough - give it at least another 5-7 and revisit, but really this is a start at 25 and go from there wine.
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10/1/2022 - cshouston Likes this wine: 89 Points
Cigar box, cherries, and dried herbs on the nose. Well structured, still tannic, and a touch hot. On the palate, there’s some dusty graphite and dusky fruit, but not a heck of a lot else going on. Several hours of air softened the wine, gave it more finesse, roundness, and subtle sweetness; much more enjoyable! It’s unquestionably a lovely wine, but this bottle was not showing its best.
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9/24/2022 - drjb Likes this wine: 96 Points
The 2005 Montrose opened with a a deep crimson colour with an initially closed nose that opened with several hours in the decanter to reveal a both fragrant and rich nose of blackcurrants, garnet plums, dark chocolate, cedar and charcoal. The palate reflects the richness of the nose with intense blackcurrant and plum fruit characters balanced with a long and fine line of walnuts, cedar and cigar box characters. There is the balance, finesse, purity and intensity of the best 05s that make this a reference standard for Montrose.
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8/30/2022 - Plabella Likes this wine: 97 Points
Montrose doesn't get any better. Beautiful dark fruit, balanced with integrated tannins, beautiful nose and dark red color.
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8/4/2022 - AaronMaxwell Likes this wine: 94 Points
Needs tons of air, but this is a beautiful wine that's drinking well right now.
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8/3/2022 - Teaky Likes this wine:
Decanted for 6 hours, really came alive after 2.5 hours, the nose on this is amazing and could be detected while sitting next to the glass, ever evolving red and dark fruits with sone floral notes, caramel and vanilla in the background, but mainly fruit forward. Flavors are of blackberry, cassis and strawberry with a tart cranberry aftertaste, quite tannic but not to the point that it isn’t enjoyable (it was quite enjoyable indeed), nice acidity this wine seems to have a long life ahead of it, I wanted to try one to see if I should get more and I definitely will! An excellent wine, and one of those that the tasting note can never do it Justice!
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7/9/2022 - Édifice wrote: 96 Points
Subtle bouquet of ripe, juicy blackberries, fresh Linzer tarte, a tiny bit of funk. Incredibly balanced palate, juicy, ripe berries, subtle sweetness, acidity, highest quality dark chocolate, leading to a long finish with spices and minerals. First night still a bit hard, but softened subsequently and much improved on second night. A real treat, elegant, balanced but also powerful. Sterner, fresher than the 2003, but a great wine in development. Will benefit from a few years more in the cellar but already a joy to drink.
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6/22/2022 - melvinyeowq wrote:
Lunch at 67PM: Didn’t show as well as the VCC alongside, similar to the previous note from a couple months back with the animal funk and brooding fruit being the primary characteristics of this wine.
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6/18/2022 - nywine68 wrote: 93 Points
Drank with dinner at the Inn at Little Washington. Showing beautiful notes of secondary development (already) with smoke, grilled meat and dark brooding blackberry fruit. Tannins are still very assertive, however, and will take at least another decade to melt away. The question will be if the flavors and tannins will mature at the same pace?
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6/11/2022 - wihong wrote: 93 Points
Opaque deep purple with slight brick rim. Aroma of intense juicy grape, spice box, cedar and faint anise. Palate entry with silky tannin, meaty, gamy and black pepper. Followed with mid-palate of juicy grape, ginger ale and plum. Long finish of licorice, mint, cedar and eucalyptus. Massive mouthwatering Bordeaux, complex but smooth, rounded and easy to drink.
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5/30/2022 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
Powerful, concentrated, deep, long, intense, youthful, and tannic, there is a strong backbone here that will allow this to age gracefully for 2-3 decades with ease. But it is not ready to go at this point. So, either give it 2 hours of air, or wait 5-10 more years.
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5/13/2022 - Motz wrote: 98 Points
Decanted and enjoyed over a long evening.
Very young! At this stage, seemingly equal parts red and purple fruited. Exquisite bouquet, prototypical of varieties in place. Bright red fruits and berries, deep purple and black berries, herbs (mint), tobacco, spent espresso grounds, dark chocolate powder, and more concentrated clay and gravel terroir elements than this purist knew what to do with! Hot Damn!
High quality Merlot, with plum, pomegranate, and crunchy red berry notes, serves as a velvet glove, draping an iron fist, Cabernet Sauvignon-driven core, of blackcurrant, pepper garden, graphite, and that piercing, powdered steel-like suspension that differentiates Saint-Estèphe from other Left Bank communes.
Acid, medium plus to high. Tannin, medium to medium plus (powdery and gritty). Air enhanced the experience. The last sips were best.
Purists with low tannin tolerance, who enjoy great Left Bank offerings fully resolved should avoid this for no less than another decade. More rough and tumble, high-tannin tolerate palates should decant for several hours, strap in, and enjoy the kick-ass ride. Once the wine hits its square drinking window, perhaps roundabout 2035, but more likely, 2040, it should hold for several more years.
Only the Léoville Las Cases has made an equal impression in this vintage. That wine delivers strapping substance. This wine delivers striking balance of range and depth. Improvement likely. 98-99.
A powerful tasting experience on which to write my 1,000th Bordeaux note.
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4/17/2022 - tropa56 Likes this wine: 96 Points
I wish I didn't open this. Great wine that will be a real treat but needs years or a long decant. I would prefer the years. Opened at Easter dinner when wine was really flowing. Followed a 2012 Ciacci Piccolomini Santa Caterina and 2 bottles of 2006 Sassicaia. Wasn't time to decant. Wine was really reticent showing some intense black fruits, tobacco, flowers, licorice, and gravel. Will be a stunner but honestly, I won't open my other bottle until it's in it's twenties. And even then, I will make sure I can decant if necessary. This would be my advice unless you have enough bottles and are dying to try. This wine is massive and intensely structured.
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3/29/2022 - Brent25 Likes this wine: 92 Points
Clear deep ruby; clean medium nose of fall cracked leaves and perfume; dry; medium plus acidity; medium plus tannins; medium plus alcohol; medium plus body; pronounced flavour intensity; palate is tarter with addition of blackberries, cocoa and tar - much better than nose; long finish; drink now or in 10 years
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3/19/2022 - FabesMTL Likes this wine: 94 Points
Excellent, chiseled, strong wine that would’ve been a great pair with rib steak. Sweeter and more fruits (dark and blue fruits) than the Pichon. An excellent wine on its own but not quite as much complexity as the Baron. Drink or hold. Regarding the funk/barnyard, we got that too but we did a double decant and it eventually blows over. It needs a lot of air and time.
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3/18/2022 - CoramCritter Likes this wine: 92 Points
Found a pleasent surprise at the end of the EK F lounge in DXB! What a treat, agreed with previous notes about slight funky / barn yard nose but how wonderful! Enjoyed half a glass and by far best Bordeaux I have yet to enjoy. Surly will develop wonderfully for next decade. CHEERS!
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3/13/2022 - melvinyeowq wrote:
67PM: Very old-school, especially next to the 2010 Lynch Bages. Some funk on the nose, the dark fruit was still rather tight and brooding. Quite unforgiving behind a wall of tannins at the moment, will hold off on my bottle for a while yet.
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2/24/2022 - DanielAVTL Likes this wine: 93 Points
Wine 4/7 of Bordeaux tasting at YOLO Wine club.
* Decanted 4 hours before serving
Mesmerizing nose of cassis, berries, forest floor, earth amd truffle. The mouth - big body, lucious, bursting dark fruit, anise, pepper and herbs. Big structure and very tight tannins, suggesting this wine is way to young right now. Still a stunner, even at this point in its life, but this Montrose needs at least a decade to come into its own and probably another 5 years on top of that to start peaking. Hold...
93 points, probably a 95-96 pointer once it hits maturity.
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2/12/2022 - TomKathy Likes this wine: 98 Points
Excellent. Decanted for 2o minutes. Still young, will really blow you away in 5 more years.
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1/26/2022 - gdonaho wrote: 96 Points
Lots of fine silty sediment made decanting somewhat tricky in order to not stir it up into the wine. Blackberry fruit primarily. Dusty cedar, spicebox. Big wine still drinks like a young wine. Finishes long with a dark chocolate note.
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1/23/2022 - SARED wrote: 94 Points
Out of 375ml. A bit of manure/barn yard. Thicker textured with dark soil. Youthful density. Not as pure red and freshly delineated as the 750ml of '05 I had last November. Reminded me a bit of older 80s/90s LB with the funk and density. I wouldn't have recognized it as the same bottle of '05 Montrose if I didn't know ahead of time. Still a 94+ showing here... just in a different way.
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1/22/2022 - HowardNZ Likes this wine: 95 Points
1966 – 2010 Château Montrose vertical (Regional Wines, Wellington, NZ): Served single blind, one pour. Varieties: CS 65% | M 31% | CF 3.5%| PV 0.5%. From this wine – the sixth – there was a clear step up in the tasting to uniformly very fine quality. All of the last six wines were, for me anyway, undeniably great wines, where a large part of comparative views would have reflected individual palate preferences … A bright, primary, dark colour marked a major change from the 1966. Expressive very dark fruit on bouquet, suggesting real power, framed by traces of spicy, sweet, vanillin oak, more than seen on any of the first five wines. Also, pencil shavings, cedar, black liquorice and slaty minerals. In the mouth, tons of ripe, rich black berry fruit and crème de cassis. Huge scale, power and structure, making me think immediately it could only be the 2003 or 2005. Palate coating. Very impressive but not really ready. Superb gravelly tannins, grippy and a little hard on the very long, persistent and muscular finish. Towards the end of the tasting more nuance seemed to be emerging from the glass. Ideally, in my view, the 2005 should be cellared until 2030+, when I likely will rate it higher than 95+.
Rankings: Me 6/12 | GK 2/12 | CT 5/12.
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1/19/2022 - Bjornjh wrote: 94 Points
Double decanted 2 hours before serving. It took 2 hours before it started to open up. Tight in the beginning but then the next 3 hours the dark fruit and cedar notes came through. Full bodied and intense. Smooth polished tannins. I think it will further develop the next 5 years at least with more fruit coming through. I regret not waiting.
It was served together with filet of moose, mushroom pepper sauce.
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1/4/2022 - Zweder wrote: 93 Points
Gang of 4 in Covid19 times; Bordeaux, St. Estephe (@ RW): Beautiful, concentrated and deep bouquet with dark berries, spices, oak and cedar. On the palate dark berries, chocolate, oak, beautiful acidity and round tannin. Truly beautiful already, but it will certainly improve over the next 5 – 10+ years. 93++
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1/2/2022 - Hendmo wrote: 92 Points
Decanted for an hour and either I didn't give it enough air, or perhaps it needs a lot more time in bottle (from a 750mln this time vs. 375mln) but this wasn't anything like my last experience with this wine. Still far too young and primary to do it justice. Rich, concentrated, tannic and acidic, this needs another 3-5yrs (or perhaps a very long decant) to do it justice, and then hopefully my score has a lot of upside as all the building blocks are there. Hold.
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12/28/2021 - hkbob Likes this wine: 96 Points
Still only hinting at where this wine will ultimately land with further cellaring, this bottle was wonderful. Lots of youthful energy on the nose with more red than dark fruits and some cedar, tobacco, mineral and lavender notes. More feminine than I expected given my experience with other vintages. Great inner mouth perfume, energy and lift with a long, long finish. Already very harmonious albeit with some tannins still to be resolved. A couple of hours of aeration really helped.
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12/25/2021 - Suzyquatro Likes this wine: 96 Points
Inktzwarte kleur - Nog in primair stadium - Aroma's van kruiden, tabak, cassis, aards en leer - Nog vrij strak in de mond, rijk aan zwart fruit, indrukwekkend maar bijlange nog niet klaar, tannines nog niet in balans - Afdronk +40 '' - Enorm potentieel ! Drink rond 2026.
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12/25/2021 - alexlb06 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Really hitting its prime. Only needed 15-20 min to open. Medium to full-bodied. Cedar, graphite, cassis. Medium tannins. Went perfectly with beef tenderloin and foie gras.
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12/24/2021 - doug374 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Christmas Eve lamb with family and another happy experience with this wine. The '05 has been consistent in delivering a sophisticated and elegant taste experience. It does not demand your attention but elicits your respect.
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12/13/2021 - zimmy07 Likes this wine:
This is one of my all time favorites. Everytime I drink a bottle I need to go out and find more bottles. The wine has yet to disappoint, except for this one. This did not have the explosive floral nose, the great balnce of oak and fruit. This is the risk of buying on secondary markets. This was enjoyable but not great. This has more to do with the bottle condition than the wine, my previous notes tell more about this great wine
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12/12/2021 - levicn wrote: 92 Points
醒酒一个小时，闻香有明显的法桶香草奶油，黑醋栗一类的黑果香气，石墨的气息，入口酸度中高，单宁紧致，颗粒细腻，酒液咸，结构很大，香气浓郁，酒体饱满，黑果的香气和石墨的气息，一些橡木桶带来的巧克力的味道，后段能感受到一点酒精感，余味是香草奶油味。有一点甜美风，看酒液的颜色已经不是很年轻，但入口明显感觉酒很壮，橡木桶的奶油质感很明显。
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12/4/2021 - shifter Likes this wine: 93 Points
Decant off the sediment. Tons of graphite and black fruit on the nose. Really started to show the bouquet 30 min in. Lots of complex herb notes. Palate is bright but tight even with air. Great acidity and solid weight but lacks finish. Needs more time to fill out. Did pair amazing with black truffle Chanterelle risotto.
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11/25/2021 - mchern02 wrote: 94 Points
2 hour decant
Bright red currants and berries, licorice, pine tree, mint and graphite. Gorgeous palate already, slightly on the effeminate side with plush fruit and delicate attractive balance. Long long finish.
In the zone already and more open than many other 05s of similar quality.
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11/18/2021 - Nmilau Likes this wine: 94 Points
Well delineated but very grippy tannins still… Too young yet.
Nose of a leather saddle, fresh out of the store. Charcoal and tea seep through the tannins just a touch. Very little fruit
Gorgeous wine but I suspect that with another 10+ years it will be spectacular
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11/4/2021 - SARED Likes this wine: 95 Points
Young on the nose. Palate is rich red fruits, rose tinged flowers, pencil lead, smoke, fresh red fruited slightly high toned acidity, and wonderfully grippy powdery tannin. Needs a bit more time. 95 even now in its youthful state. Possibly 96 with another 10 years? Felt like the wine got a little more austere/slightly juicy as it got too much air (e.g. a glass that got 5 hours). Really enjoyed the bottle in the first 2 hours of opening, after double decanting for gritty sediment.
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10/4/2021 - gouldcampbell77 wrote:
Decanted 2 hrs. Very dark healthy ruby purple. A slightly odd nose. Something vegetal and earthy I can't quite put my finger on - a slight hint of cork perhaps? On the palate, smooth, rich, concentrated and powerful. Oodles of extract from the perfectly ripe cabernet fruit, this just oozes class. Very pure - reminds me of Sassicaia. Perfectly drinkable but that slight hint of cork makes me think this may be an out of condition bottle. Darn!
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9/18/2021 - Hermosabritdad Likes this wine: 93 Points
Now in a great place. No notes taken last night - just savored the moment with friends. Compared to two years ago this really is drinking well now. No doubt it has further to go, but the good news is we are now in a window that means we can keep trying it from here on in. So much complexity and style, yet smooth and silky, with tannins now very well integrated. Lovely stuff.
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8/29/2021 - soyhead wrote:
nose - pencil lead, blackberry compote
mouth - smooth, juicy, and high toned all enveloping a deep firm core.
Will last but already drinking super.
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8/14/2021 - William Kelley Likes this wine:
The 2005 Montrose continues to show brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with notes of blackcurrant, red fruits, loamy soil, black truffles and cigar ash. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's still brooding and tannic, with lively acids and an imposing chassis of structuring—and artery-cleansing—extract. Still a full decade from maturity, it's one of the last unrepentantly old-school vintages of Montrose, and Médoc purists couldn't own enough. I certainly don't.
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8/7/2021 - Édifice Likes this wine: 96 Points
Great bouquet of ripe blue- and blackberries, grilled, sweet peppers, tobacco, cigar box, undergrowth. First night still a bit tight, second night fully on, round lush, inky, softer, with incredibly fine and structured tannins, leading to a long finish with cedar notes, sweet elements and spices. Will definitively benefit from 3-5 years more to further soften and integrate. But already great, dense, complex, full yet very elegant and balanced.
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7/18/2021 - MrBrege wrote: 94 Points
First bottle out my first case. Dark and brooding. Still very young with barely any secondary notes even on the nose, but delicious!! Tannins well present but not at all harsh. Wonderfully concentrated, one of the most concentrated wines I think I have ever tasted, a truly big wine. The finish goes on for minutes literally, quite remarkable. Others may score it even higher than I do, it will give the US Cab fruit-bombs a run for their money, while actually being quite sophisticated, although "elegant" is not the word I would use here.
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7/1/2021 - Nanda wrote: 93 Points
Double blind. Pretty clearly Bordeaux with intensity and elegance in the aromas. Good richness on the palate with lots of cigar, bell pepper and earthy funk. I was in the 1990s, so a bit surprised to see this 2005 is so ready.
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7/1/2021 - Burgundy Al wrote: 93 Points
Meursault (Southside) 1er Cru vs Village, Mostly Blind (Hughes House - Chicago IL): Double blind alongside Foley 2005 Claret. Both seemed very Cabernet-driven, clearly from different parts of the world and philosophically) seemingly different planets. Montrose was old school Bordeaux with black plum, roasted meat and lots of power in an introverted fashion. Very approachable for a 2005, with even more exciting go-forward potential.
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6/27/2021 - Hendmo Likes this wine: 97 Points
From a 0.375 bottle. Still young, but ready to drink after 3hr decant. The nose was of lovely dark fruits, but needed all the time in the decanter to unfurl and felt like it was perhaps holding something back a bit. It was on the palate that the quality of this wine really shone through though, and the concentration of the beautiful cassis and blackberry were immediately evident. Full-bodied and intense, but somehow with impeccable freshness and balance. While there were some secondary notes - a hint of graphite and cedar - the overall impression was of the exceptional purity and quality of the fruit. The impressive structure also stood out a mile, with the beautifully polished tannins rendering the wine very drinkable, but giving it a sense of coiled energy, and guiding the flavours across the palate, with the flavours lingering on a good 40-50 seconds. This will probably get better still, and I marked it down a point because the nose wasn't completely open for business yet, but it's already superb.
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6/27/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote: 97 Points
The old saying, "Slow but steady wins the race" is clearly applicable here as this gem keeps getting better and better with age. Full-bodied, concentrated, tannic, and young, yet it has slipped into adolescence as you find cedar, cigar wrapper, tobacco leaf, herbs, black currants, and a melange of cherries, cassis, and lead pencil on the nose and palate. Powerful, but not overwhelming, classic, regal, and deep, with length and complexity in the finish. Offer it 2 hours of air if you are popping a bottle now, or wait another 5 years and this will really start to shine.
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6/7/2021 - doug374 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Decanted 45 mins, a smooth and elegant core with fruit, earth notes, and spices all well integrated. A long life ahead but enjoyable now.
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6/7/2021 - Papies wrote: 94 Points
Decanted for 30 minutes and needed at this young stage. almost 20yrs young this wine and it has been 6 years since we tried it last ( Papies 93) and very happy to see it evolve and become even more beautiful.
Granted at this stage the wine is only showing half or so of its potential still its impressive and very elegant. Soft and subtle and in a way restrained but also very welcoming and giving. Its a soft ballerina version of a 2005 caret and especially compared to the Leoville Poyferre 2005 9 Papies 91-92) that we had after was a cut above. A superb wine and testament to the great and consistent winemaking at this great estate. 94 for now but will easily warrant more as it evolves! A must have wine from the 2005 vintage and probably worth buying this than the 2020 !
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6/6/2021 - nwebstar Likes this wine: 93 Points
Youthful in colour. Not quite as dark as might have expected. Strongly acidic on initial opening - decanted for 1-2hrs and consumed over another 1-2 hrs. Presented as elegant balanced and thoroughly pleasant Bordeaux but lacking in a little character (and fruit). Perhaps going through a closed phase but tasted to me like a slightly lesser vintage (not a 2005) however promising fullness of mouthfeel which might allude to better times ahead.
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5/17/2021 - dentistdhk wrote: 80 Points
Earthy
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4/20/2021 - Nicolas Beirens wrote: 92 Points
Powerful wine, lots of tannins ... wine that has to rest in the cellar for a few more years
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4/9/2021 - Kevnzworld wrote: 95 Points
I love the 2005’s but am waiting to open most of them.
Tonight we opened the Montrose
Well balanced, dark fruit, good concentration with developing secondary flavors .
This wine has exited the primary phase and has now entered its drinking window.
This could rate higher in five years
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3/31/2021 - L9027 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Fresh, strong black fruit with hints of red fruit, mushrooms, earthy notes. 16 years and still young. Amazing.
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3/27/2021 - Paco55 wrote: 96 Points
Initial nose on opening is closed closed closed. For a 16 year old Bordeaux this wine yields not much more than when it was first bottled. 6 hours in the decanter however and the classic Bordeaux aromas of pencil shavings, star anise, cigars, slate and dark fruit combined with saddle leather waft from the glass.
The palate shows huge potential behind the massive tannic structure that dominates the long grippy finish. The fruit is just starting to peek out with just a touch of sweetness and a hint of mellowness starting to show, but this has at least 10 years in front of it before it is really ready to drink. This wine has all the hallmarks of future greatness but it’s a crying shame to open it now, and it gives a true insight into how unapproachable top tier Bordeaux has become. It’s built to be drunk 25-30 years after the vintage but who on earth has that sort of patience to buy wine en-primeur or even on release and hope that all the moving parts coalesce into something eventually yielding pleasure and worthy of its label. 96 points for great patience and future potential only. Closer to 89/90 points if you were hoping that it would deliver on its price point today.
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2/14/2021 - mchern02 wrote: 93 Points
4 hour decant
The nose you dream of with aromas of anise, spice, minerals, graphite and some cassis and other dark fruits. Palate is unfortunately very tight but with an exceptional core and a subtle power to it; today it’s just only that dimensional and it’s young and tight but me thinks this is just a tightly coiled beast.
Less evolved than last bottle but think in 5 plus years this will crush.
93 today but with a lot of upside
Be patient
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2/11/2021 - MarshallLi Likes this wine: 93 Points
Deep ruby,medium(+) rose,red cherry,red plum,blueberry,green bell pepper,eucalyptus,dill,ripe fruit,cloves,charred wood,leather,wet leaves,forest floor,dry,medium(+) acidity,smooth high tannin,medium alcohol,medium(+) body,long finish,very good wine,suitable for bottle ageing
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1/17/2021 - boreddoughboy Likes this wine: 88 Points
Something happening now, Great nose of dark fruit, graphite, saddle leather but very thin on taste. Put a 1/2 bottle aside. hopefully brings some life to this wine.
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12/31/2020 - Doerrie Wine Likes this wine:
Great wine! Can be stored for a couple more years
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12/30/2020 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 94 Points
Drank from a magnum. Gorgeous nose of barnyard, truffle, mineral and soft red fruit. Palate follows suite but remains tight, tannic and borderline austere. Needs time but may very well remain impenetrable indefinitely.
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12/28/2020 - zimmy07 Likes this wine: 98 Points
an amazing bottle of wine, holy crap! Young, dark, packed with leather, tobacco, dark fruits. This wine will be amazing in 10 years, but so subtle, so well integrated for its age. easily a contender for my wine of the year. Decanted 7 hours, needed more, but buy this up.
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11/7/2020 - Grinner wrote: 95 Points
Battle Cab with JKW; 11/6/2020-11/7/2020 (Woodyville): First obvious BDX this evening. Initially austere and remaining tannic, it gives up black currant, black plum, stone / mineral, and cigar box that go on and on. Wish I had more but my patience has already been tested with this damn vintage! 2025-2050.
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11/7/2020 - jkwoodward wrote: 92 Points
Woodward/Lyon Cabernet Clash; 11/6/2020-11/7/2020: Somewhat muted, this bottle compared to its competition tonight. Still tannic as to be expected. Only BDX that wasn't obvious to me. Bottle variation?
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10/28/2020 - Eric wrote:
M&PD Zoom Tasting: Bordeaux (Zoom): An absolute beast. I correctly guessed Montrose but assumed it was the 2003. Tannic, young, dark, dense, brooding, mineral and beautiful.
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10/9/2020 - dnicewicz Likes this wine: 94 Points
After a 3-4 h decant, just a lovely masculine wine. Perfume of dark fruits, tobacco and leather gives way to a lush palate with ripe tannins that sits heavy on the tongue. A long finish that keeps getting better as this ages in the decanter. Fantastic wine now but it’s sure to be even more spectacular as time goes on. My hunch is that this will evolve at a glacial pace, however.
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10/1/2020 - MarcelloW Likes this wine: 95 Points
First bottle out of my case...After 5 hours in the decanter...still a bit tannic, but not harsh and already very accessible...at the beginning of a long life...very classic and really great stuff! Don’t hesitate to open a bottle with a long decant.
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9/4/2020 - soyhead wrote:
nose -coffee, chocolate covered blueberry, stone/slate
mouth - very lush wine, drinking absolutely delicious and more evolved than i recall prior bottles, it very much has a St. Emilion type feel of monolithic dark fruit and slate. tasted against the 05 Cos, and this wine was more hedonistic and open for business today, but perhaps more straightforward. Sexy wine. Drinks great now. We postulated it has higher merlot% than the cos, and we were right (32%M 6%CF vs 18%M4%CF). I would like to drink more of this.
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9/3/2020 - beatles wrote: 94 Points
Verical, amost chalky, dry, cool, very masculin and both powerful and elegant - a well dressed gentleman. Will livon foir many years, but seems approachable - at least from this cellar.
From HJ
#Anarki
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8/22/2020 - duchamp Likes this wine: 93 Points
Deep ruby to deep purple, a little brett on the first nose followed by cassis, black plum, licorice, mint, earth and spice, juicy acidity on the attack with layered blue and black fruit, mint, spice, "spikey" and dry tannins, finishes is all Pauillac with perfumed black fruit, earth, stone, tobacco leaf, and refreshing acidity
Note: Drinking well now but this claret is begging for our patience
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7/25/2020 - soyhead wrote:
more approachable than when tasted 2 years ago, but still a beast. slightly stinky and sulfurous nose, but still manageable. inky black, dark fruits, great complexity with midpalate that made me think of gravel or granite. Hold.
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7/19/2020 - Bv wallewijn Likes this wine: 94 Points
Chique wood remarkable not metioned in the tasting notes of Cellar Tracker, overlaying a combination of refined black (a.o. cassis) and red fruit. Some colour evolution at the rim. Still not completely integrated, but gaining balance. Needs air and time, it develops in the glass. The ripe tannins are showing some separation in the final. A nice example of 2005 but needs at least another 5 years to culminate. Allard Botenga
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6/16/2020 - NickA Likes this wine: 92 Points
Château Montrose through 6 legendary vintages (Zoom!): 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc, 0.5% Petit Verdot. Herve Berland says this is in the style of the 'old Montrose', before the winemakers had as much understanding of the terroir and when to pick.
The first signs of age appear in the colour of the wine - some redness at the edge. Very classic Bordeaux nose - pencil lead - but a brineiness too. Cool and reserved (but not austere) on the palate, with some gameiness poking through towards the saline finish, which doesn't match the magnificence of the prior wines'.
Lacks the refinement of tonight's younger vintages; Herve Berland says he wouldn't characterise it as an outstanding vintage, and the 05s are going through a quieter patch, but it's at the start of a long drinking window and improving all the time.
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6/13/2020 - aerosol Likes this wine: 93 Points
Got a glass here now and having dinner at the WineWatch with friends. The nose is ivory soap with some fruit and alcohol. I get some tart cherry, dark fruit, and loam. It’s just too young for now so decant for a couple hours. But it's a great wine, but still tooooo young.
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6/6/2020 - KenK Likes this wine: 95 Points
Outshined the 2005 Ornellaia and 2005 Dominus tonight with great depth of sweet black fruits, great structure and long spiced finish. Wonderful
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5/26/2020 - ondersirikci Likes this wine: 92 Points
Short decant. Thick dark red with violet reflections. Tight nose and palate at first. Well balanced acidity, dry dark fruits, cassis, black mullberries, slightly diluted feel at mid palate, still gripping earthy tannins getting more prominent at the long finish.
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4/23/2020 - rob.boothe Likes this wine: 94 Points
Decanted and followed over 2 hours. Deep ruby. Rich blackberries, capsicum, pepper and leather. Surprisingly young and vital, not much game or musk. Very correct on the palette, with leather and spices more pronouned. Serious tannins, but not unbalanced, if not very refined. At the young end of middle aged - where will it be in another decade? Real claret. Full body, long + finish.
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4/22/2020 - dbenglis Likes this wine: 93 Points
Very pleasant. Much aging left. Tobacco and plum.
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3/28/2020 - Édifice Likes this wine: 96 Points
Great bouquet of ripe gooseberries, blackcurrant, tobacco and spices. First night still relatively closed, fresh, subtle but already very enjoyable. Second night much readier. Medium-bodied, silky, complex, with some freshness, spiciness and sweetness on a long finish. The wine is very elegant, subtle, balanced in its flavor profile. Compared to the 2003, which is more hedonistic, it is calmer, more modest. It still is on an upward curve but already great.
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3/21/2020 - WineKnut Likes this wine: 94 Points
There is no time like the present and these are strange times, indeed.
12:15 PM Time to pull this cork. A perfect cork comes out clean with no tartrate and 2mm of uniform penetration with no seepage. Sweet fruit and floral perfume trapped for so long fill the air from the neck of the bottle, trapped no longer. Moderate sediment is found in bottle as the deep ruby wine is decanted.
12:30 PM Just a taste in the glass. Deep ruby red with slight garnet rim. Tears move down the sides of the glass so slowly they stop, trapped in time, never reaching the liquid below. Disappearing instead against the sides of the glass. Street market nose of dark boysenberry syrup, floral oils, leaves in the bottom of a fortune tellers cup and grilled beef kabob.
12:45 PM Time for first impressions and I'm met with tongue coating tannin dominating leading to refreshingly bright fresh fruit. Not austere by any stretch of the imagination. Stone and rose petals not far behind and lighter than expected mouthfeel.
6:45 PM Dinner time. 6 hours have passed in the decanter and tannins are back where they belong. Flavors of red crunchy fruits, blackberry, cassis and a nose of licorice, soy sauce and roses.
10:30 PM Bed time. Iron oxide, touch of smoke, stems, raspberry, dusty saddle and all that had come before. Time is a funny thing. Time changes everything. Time, like wine, once spent is gone. Leaving only memories...
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3/21/2020 - jonanator wrote: 95 Points
Just fantastic but, IMO, still young. With that said, after a few hours of air, this was great. Pure class. The purity of the fruit is stunning. Enjoyable but needs 5+ years to really strut its stuff.
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3/19/2020 - Wine by Bok wrote: 90 Points
NAILED IT
I was tested by a friend last night. I outperformed by calling both the vintage and the label correctly. I really have to give myself a praise 🙂
First off; highly concentrated tea leaves, leaving me zooming in on St Estephe. Not calling Cos nor Calon Segur as they each have their own character of varying amount of tea leaves. Next obvious character is the classic backward style, not many winemakers bothered but Montrose is very traditional. Last, the distinct big tannins tell me it’s 05 or 10.
more tasting note in finewines.com.sg
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3/12/2020 - beatles wrote: 95 Points
Majestic wine. Cool, calm abd collected, with a very vertical structure, a real cabernet, blackberries here, certainly tannins - much to young, but the wine is still enjoyable now for it's mere class. 95+
#Bæst
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3/8/2020 - wineotim Likes this wine: 95 Points
Second bottle of this, almost a 4 year gap. The fruit has receded to the background, mineral, steel, and iron dominate. Smooth, silky, and beautiful. The acidity has calmed down a bit and has melded nicely. Bordeaux characteristics are taking hold. Memorable, but in a more restrained way from my first bottle
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2/9/2020 - SergZr wrote: 93 Points
Very early to drink.Good potencial in future.
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1/28/2020 - mchern02 wrote: 95 Points
1.5 hour decant
Black cherry, black cassis, tobacco, violets, cedar, beautiful balanced palate with cascading dark fruit with medium acid, good length and slightly drying finish
Would benefit from more time in decanter or age, but still very very good
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12/6/2019 - thomas andersen Likes this wine: 95 Points
Great glass!
Decanted 4 hours before drinking. Fully agree with the last few tasting notes. This wine must have another 20-25 years of life in it. It was young, and full of fruit. But also notes of cedar and stable animals -).
It held its structure through the evening and in the glass and general consensus was that it was the most pleasant experience of the evening - in a strong field of bottles. It was a Magnum kept in perfect conditions. Will open another bottle in a few years time and test my hypothesis.
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10/18/2019 - Purple Tooth wrote: 95 Points
I think this is really really good! It has all the Bordeaux signature attributes of crunchy red plums, cedar, flowers, and earth, with youthfull mouth cleansing pull that keeps it light on its feet. But my only concern is that it peter'ed out on the 4th hour, becoming a bit disjointed and losing its focus. A great and holdable bordeaux or any great holdable wine, should get better as it bottoms out. This had me questioning the health of the perfectly presented bottle...Im iffy on holding this, but still give it the marks it deserves based on initial delivery. Will try another soon...If this is standard representation of the wine, I consider this a wine to Drink rather than holding. A great Montrose never the less...
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10/18/2019 - bonedoc wrote:
Ditto last note,but the Brett was not bad enough to detract from the wine. 92+
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10/13/2019 - Rogershkg Likes this wine: 92 Points
Ready for drinking although plenty of life. Full dark fruit flavour, colour deep red, quite dense. Taste reasonably long
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10/6/2019 - acyso wrote: 88 Points
Vinetasters: 2005 Bordeaux 2nd Growths (Skokie, IL): Served double blind. Dense and earthy on the nose with a bit of black cherry. The palate shows a good amount of acidity and balance, and while this is fairly ripe, it’s actually pretty well-balanced until you get to the finish, where a slight bit of roastedness shows up. It’s a fairly big wine; not overdone, but also not particularly elegant. I’m thinking something along the lines of Cos or Montrose? My 5th, group's 6th.
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9/27/2019 - The Vines That Bind wrote: 92 Points
Kuki'o Wine Trip 2019; 9/22/2019-9/28/2019 (Champagne & Bordeaux): Good but 2010 surprisingly more approachable as well as bigger, rounder, and more expressive.
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9/17/2019 - Jammy Wine Likes this wine: 94 Points
The 2005 Montrose is truly irresistible. Stepping into the modern era of Montrose, floral and dynamic. Spiced blackcurrant, violet, exotic spices and creamy vanilla. Sexy bouquet with good density. Very young but those who prefer fresher palate might enjoy this today. (94/100)
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9/11/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 95 Points
Small glass at Bdx Paulee and side by side the 89 Montrose. The 05 was double decanted. Immediately quite open thanks to that prep and it reconfirmed my impression from a year ago that this is coming into very fine form indeed. It was possibly actually drinking more mature than the undecanted 89 alongside which was a true behemoth. The 05 showed some softening in tannins and structure. Given the market price if you don't already own this I think this is a wine to buy.
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8/21/2019 - mclanew Likes this wine: 96 Points
Decanted an hour. This is a spectacular wine with a lot of potential ahead. The nose is lovely blackberry, tobacco and leather. The wine is full bodied, concentrated but also very refined and focused. The wine reveals delicious cascading flavors of black currant, lead pencil and tobacco into a long satisfying finish. This wine is very good now and still young but it will improve and gain complexity. I expect my rating will be higher in future tastings of this wine.
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8/3/2019 - wihong wrote: 93 Points
Dark opaque purple with brown rim. Complex aroma of damp forest floor, ginger, anise, violet and leather. Palate Entry: Medium body. Musty, wet earth, mushroom. Mid-Palate: Cherry, rich spices of anise, cinnamon and cola. Finish: Medium long, sweet creamy silky tannin, oak and mint. Great example of beautifully aging bordeaux with fully integrated tannin. Can't wait to see how it will taste 5-20 years later!
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7/8/2019 - pfisher17 Likes this wine: 98 Points
Best Bordeaux I’ve ever had. Earthy soft tannins. Decanted for 2 hours. Should age for another 20-30 years easily given the acid. Wonderful. Wish I had more.
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5/22/2019 - drjb Likes this wine: 96 Points
Wine Group Dinner #168 - 2005 Bordeaux Part 1 (Urbane Restaurant, Brisbane): Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. The 05 Montrose is a cracker of a wine with a dense dark crimson colour and a rich and bright nose of blackcurrant, plum, dark cherry, dark chocolate, charcoal and all-spice. The palate is deeply flavoured and round with beautiful inflections of flavour leading into a finely tannic and lengthy finish. A great bottle of Montrose whose purity is an object lesson cf the 2003 which is rich yes but fine and pure not quite.
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5/6/2019 - SonnyChiba wrote: 94 Points
93-94+. I agree with most of the recent notes. Though fairly open for business and tasty right now, it will benefit from at least 3-4 more years. Lot of a classic Bordeaux notes peaking around the corner.
For today, drink the 01’ instead!
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3/21/2019 - Hermosabritdad wrote: 92 Points
Still early, with ttheeh result that the palette didn’t yeild much - lacked definition - even after 2 hours. But good nes is tanins were not harsh, and the nose was lovely, and complex. So its a case of wiating for it to reveal its better self. Have a feeling that in another 5 years this will be very good. So, will try another in 2-3 years to see how its going.
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2/25/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
This just keeps getting better with age. Still a bit tightly wound, so more cellaring is needed until you enjoy the all that ripe, juicy, fresh, sweet, dark, red fruits and spice. The wine is full, deep and intense. It's tannic, but the tannins are ripe, the fruits are sweet, and there is length and purity. The finish shows some dusty texture on the tannins. Give it until 2025 and it should be rockin'!
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2/21/2019 - patwjr wrote: 95 Points
Decanted for 3 hours, rebottled & recorked, Reopened 2 hours later. Enjoyable now but tight, so more years of patience will be rewarded.
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2/5/2019 - TomKathy Likes this wine: 98 Points
It’s Montrose
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11/10/2018 - acyso wrote: 88 Points
HDH Bordeaux Auction; 11/9/2018-11/10/2018 (Chicago, IL): Earthy, dusty, bretty, with plenty of black fruit. Broad-shouldered, slightly austere, with the fruit right now a little obscured by the massive structure here. A very big wine that hasn't fully resolved yet. I suspect it may yet soften and become more enjoyable, but it's certainly not great now. The Dame is drinking better.
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10/27/2018 - sirpat00 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Wine & Dine Vol XI (Florhof (Zurich)): Tasted blind as part of a mini Montrose vertical (1996, 2003, 2005, 2009). For me the 2009 out on top, but the 1998 and 2003 were not far behind while the 2005 fell a bit short.
Unfortunately closed and low in intensity. The fruit was surprisingly jamy (even more than the marmeladey 2003) and sweet. Some interesting spiceyness. Tannins not yet well integrated but otherwise great balance.
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10/26/2018 - Cailles Likes this wine: 91 Points
Wine & Dine Vol. XI (Zürich): Mini Montrose vertical 96/03/05/09. A good display of Montrose‘s aristocratic, classic charm. The 96 is fully mature and provides a lot of drinking pleasure even if it‘s not the most complex wine. The 03 is the odd one out, extremely spicy and quite ripe (the others who had it blind guessed Napa) but needs a lot of time. The 05 is completely closed, even after 7 hours in the decanter. The 09 is so intense, ripe and profound but so harmonious and elegant, certainly the one with the highest potential.
TN: Unfortunately very closed, not giving much. Revealed just hints what might be in store for this wine with lots of rather red fruit, hints of minerality and leather. Rather tannic at the moment.
Decanting: Decanted it for 7 hours and it was still not open for business. Better forget it for at least 5 more years.
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10/21/2018 - LB88 wrote: 95 Points
Pure joy! Luscious fruit drinking surprisingly well for a 2005! Will wait another couple of years before opening another bottle.
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10/18/2018 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Wine Spectator newbies; 10/18/2018-10/20/2018 (Marriott Marquis): Really lovely and wonderful and one of my favorites. There's a great structure to this which stood out for me. Good fruit. Young and needs time, but will be great.
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10/3/2018 - bonedoc wrote:
Ditto last note
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7/27/2018 - DrinkBordeaux wrote: 95 Points
This wine was tight as a drum. Even after several hours, it just never completely opened up. The stuffing is clearly there, but if you open this now, you'll only see a faint glimpse of its potential. Dark fruit, Asian spices, fresh violets, and tobacco on the nose. Full-bodied, powerful, and very concentrated. Still very primary. Impressive length on the finish, with firm tannins. Moderate level of acidity. I won't open a bottle for at least five years. My score indicates its potential, not its level of enjoyment right now.
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7/14/2018 - wineforth Likes this wine: 97 Points
The other vintage at BB&R 2017 en primeur tasting. The wine of the evening for me. Very dark colour, big oaky cassis nose, very tannic with weight of fruit to match. Very long finish. Needs 5 years plus before drinking. An epic ride - like opening up the exhaust baffles on a V12 Aston. Sadly, I have the 04 and 06!
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7/11/2018 - Nutty08 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Château sponsored tasting. Compared to ‘09 and ‘98. Very surprised by how ripe and concentrated this came across compared to the ‘09. I was expecting a more austere wine, and while it didn’t have the plushness or scale of the ‘09, still had a core of massive ripe black fruit. Very tannic, but quite fine in the mouth. Far away from drinking plateau. Should be a great Montrose.
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7/4/2018 - rossi.wine wrote: 95 Points
Tasted next to a 2017 barrel sample. Great nose, quite expressive and open - dark fruit, spices, graphite, cedar, tobacco, earth. On the palate more backward - powerful tannins, plenty of fruit, good acidity. Great persistence. Hold. 94-95+
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7/4/2018 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 95 Points
Berry Brothers 2017 Bordeaux en primeur (plus back vintages) Lindley Hall, London (Lindley Hall, London): Very curious to check in on that as I own a lot of them and when I tasted it a few years ago it was tough to read. This has visually developed and in fact showed older then I would have thought with clear browning. This is a very balanced wine and there is lots going on in a very delectable way - undergrowth, kirsch, mineral, a touch of pepper, long finish. Classic & complete. And funnily it reminded me a bit of the 05 Mouton on that occasion. So I am very pleased with where this is headed and one could now broach it with a decant but patience surely is going to be rewarded. 95+ and drinking window probably 2020-2045
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6/9/2018 - Burgundy Al wrote: 93 Points
Hezi's 65th Birthday Celebration (Chevalier Fine Wines - Chicago IL): Small glass, brief note. Black plum, savory spice, roasted meat and liqueur aromas and flavors. Still backward and brooding, but clear hints of greatness, 2025-.
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6/9/2018 - Nanda wrote: 94 Points
Full nose of plum, smoke and earth tones. Round, rich and approachable but in no way mature. Still pretty structured and bruising. Long and persistent, with an almost elegant finish (which is surprising given the structure/youth).
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6/9/2018 - maxima wrote: 95 Points
Hier soir au resto AVV Portovino du Quartier 10-30 de Brossard,
pour la fête de Bordeaux70 (Sylvain), en compagnie de Manon, TheDanny et Mike.
Bouteille relevée depuis plus d`une semaine,
soigneusement décanté (pas mal de dépôt et
un peu de croute sur le côté de la bouteille)
et mis en carafe 2 heures, remis en bouteille épaulée non rebouchée toute la journée et apportée au resto le soir
pour accompagner les viandes lors du souper festif!
Le premier verre à l`ouverture montre un monstre
de densité et de concentration, beaucoup de tannins
et une belle acidité….ça augure bien!
Nez parfumé et bien en place. Beaucoup de fruits, du cèdre, des herbes et un peu de terre.
En bouche, superbe! Beaucoup de fruits avec une belle pureté.
Des cerises, des bleuets, du cèdre et un peu de boisé bien dosé.
Les tannins sont bien enrobés et la finale immensément longue.
Tout un vin, GRAND vin et ce pour plusieurs années…cette bouteille nous a donné un très beau moment.
GRANDIOSE!
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6/1/2018 - soyhead wrote:
tasted blind. Nose - coffee. French roast or something very aromatic
mouth - very primary. a bruiser. zippy complex berry fruit. infanticide.
I guessed young Pavie. Stash in the recesses of your cellar and forget it exists.
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5/24/2018 - Collector1855 wrote: 97 Points
During a Chateau Montrose dinner with Commanderie friends. This wine is climbing in my rating every time I taste it. Not nearly ready (best after 2025) but now the wine gives you a glimpse of what lies ahead. The tannins have softened alot, and secondary aromatics are starting to appear. A grand, masculine Medoc wine.
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5/17/2018 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
It's been a few years since this last crossed my path. 3 hours of decanting added a lot of flesh and softness, to this still youthful treat. The wine is fresh, clean, powerful and tannic. There is length and intensity, with a dusty, tannic finish. I'd wait until the wine hits 20, if you are seeking a more mature experience.
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3/23/2018 - jonanator wrote:
Absolutely beautiful wine. This will need some (maybe many) more years in bottle, but this showed surprisingly well with a 4hr decant, but I also know that this was just a peak into its potential. Definitely hinted at the greatness this wine is destined for. Full and rich, crushed rocks and soft supple fruit with tremendous struture and balance. This is going to be special.
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3/21/2018 - Wangenhome Likes this wine: 90 Points
Served with guinea fowl and asparagus. Delightful combination
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3/9/2018 - Mascarello59 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Very appealing nose of cherries, blackcurrant, tobacco and cedar. Lots of tannin under the fruit which seems dominated by sour cherries and cassis plus a hint of earth. This is a wine not without sophistication and it has very good prospects of turning into a great wine with some additional 10-15 years in the cellars. Very good balance and a long persistent finish. 93-94p
Tried it with some Comté cheese which took away a lot of the tannin and turned it into something much more welcoming.
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3/7/2018 - bonedoc wrote: flawed
Slight Brett taint which overshadowed a beautiful full bodied wine.
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3/2/2018 - Wine Buergler Likes this wine: 92 Points
So tannic is sucks all the moisture out of your mouth. Do not drink upon opening or you’ll get barnyard, nutmeg, with a golden shower finish that leaves your wondering if you should like it or not. We are wine cougars and like them young, but this one needs a few more years in the bottle.
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1/5/2018 - dchain Does not like this wine: 89 Points
Deep ruby. Generously provided by the chateau. Very closed at the moment and it is unyielding and ultra tannic. No pleasure whatsoever. Touch of white flowers but monolithic dark hard fruit at the moment. Very different from my previous experience and I am hoping the wine will revive again n due course. Leave alone for at least a few years.
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12/15/2017 - Hazeo wrote: 94 Points
Great potential here, but very young still. Rating this as highly as the Palmer 2004 last night based on potential, but in many ways enjoyable already. Dense black fruit, cassis, earth, and a sweet but tannic finish.
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11/28/2017 - VinCapitan Likes this wine: 93 Points
cassis, Violet and cocoa, darken earth, rolls over the coffee'd palate with a gentle bitterness at the back end. some barn yard funky bits, but clean as. Tannin flow large and bold, clean but impeccable. A big baby
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11/22/2017 - the player Likes this wine: 94 Points
Tremendous evolution in 6 years since I last had this wine. The 05s are beginning to open up with 2 hours in the decanter. Deep ruby color, the nose is opulent with dark red berries, black currants, and nutmeg. On the palate very well structured and powerful, builds momentum, exploding with fruit and acidity, tannins quite present but velvety, and a long finish.
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11/5/2017 - Mike Dildine Likes this wine: 93 Points
13% abv. Medium ruby, very expressive aromas. Cherry, leather and cassis dominate a pleasing palate impression. This brooding wine retains a strong tannic structure - should continue to improve for many years.
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7/9/2017 - Mikehorton92 wrote:
This wine isn't palatable just yet. It needs time and lots of it. The nose and finish are already hynotizing. However, aggressive is an understatement for what it is on the palate. 7-9-17
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5/18/2017 - chatters wrote:
Grand Cru Cabernet (pyrmont wharf, sydney): savoury blackcurrant, biscuit, very slight leather notes, crushed rock, touches of meatiness. Savoury, juicy, drying talc textured tannins Long with a bit of spice and warmth on the finish Muted fruit but this is quite closed - needs a good decant to show its true colours I would suspect.
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4/29/2017 - Miceri Likes this wine: 94 Points
Dark red; nose somewhat subdued, dark fruit; pleasant rounded attack with light tannic bite at the end (after a couple of hours in the decanter - to begin with much more tannic); very good
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4/28/2017 - MarcelloW Likes this wine:
Seems to be in a dump phase. I will wait with opening the next bottle for a few years. This wine needs time.
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4/14/2017 - FamilyLarsson wrote: 91 Points
Lite av en besvikelse just nu. Lite för mycket stallighet för ett så pass ungt vin och aningen orena toner.
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3/26/2017 - assofisso wrote: 97 Points
Tasted after 2011-2010-2009-2008. Ruby colour with a little garnet on the edges. Beautiful nose of vanilla, toast, blackfruit,graphite and leather. Palate: quiet aggressive on the attack, dense, with maturing flavours. Dusty tannins, and very dry finish!
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3/25/2017 - rossi.wine wrote: 95 Points
Tasted after 2010, 2009, 2008 Montrose. Dark core, hints of evolution around the rim. On the nose quite sweet fruit, tobacco, spices, cedar, earth, graphite. Quite expressive and open with very good depth. On the palate quite big and dense, great concentration of fruit, good acidity. Grippy, but well integrated tannins. Very long and detailed finish. Still rather young, but starting to open up. Very impressive. 94-95+
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3/6/2017 - Vino Monkeys Likes this wine: 92 Points
Deep ruby, lighter toward the rim. Layers of complex aromas. Blackberry, black cherry, bramble, graphite, old leather, menthol. High acid and medium plus, well integrated (after a day of slow ox and two hours in a decanter,) dusty tannins. Balanced, but another half decade in the bottle would pay dividends.
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2/1/2017 - Sundbyberg wrote: 96 Points
My third vintage of this wine (2005, 2007, 2008).
Very traditional, very long and with wonderful, dark, fruit, and slightly sweeter than the 2008. The change of management 2006 is quite obvious in the 2008, as the 2008 is a lot more modern.
From a small bottle. Requires a week of slowox.
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1/24/2017 - dcwino wrote: 97 Points
Chateau Montrose with Mr. Herve Berland (Ripple Restaurant in DC): Intense nose displaying crème de cassis, ink, coffee, mint, dill, mocha, lead pencil, a hint of cedar and dark spices. Excellent concentration, unctuous and chewy, layers up layers of intense dark fruit, bright acidity, strong presence of mineral and an incredible long intense cassis driven finish. For me, the most intense, bold and structured wine of the night. Really impressive. It is enjoyable with the youthful opulent fruit but will need another five to ten years to reach the youthful peak. Really impressive.
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1/9/2017 - clarson19 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Still young. Powerful. Should have kept another 15-20 years. Elegant while full
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12/25/2016 - Bobhelge wrote: 94 Points
1 juledagsfylla med Bdx: Dark ruby, very deep colour. Lots of dark fruit on the nose, espresso beans, ink, ripe blackberry and cassis. This wine is so powerful on the palate with lots of concentration and density. It is hard to believe this wine has become 11 years already and I would say you at least have to wait another 5 for its drinking window to open. Letting it bread for three and a half hours wasn’t enough. But still, so much potential.
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11/5/2016 - d'Artagnan wrote: 94 Points
À MPV
Magnifique bouche harmonieuse, c'est mûr et fin, étonnamment ouvert.
Grand vin au potentiel énorme. 94+ pts
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11/5/2016 - BrionHammond wrote: 95 Points
Masculine and bold. Dark berries and leather on the nose. Save this in another 5-10 years
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10/19/2016 - steinersing wrote: 92 Points
Slightly harsh tannins, depth, will need time
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10/18/2016 - fcxj wrote: 94 Points
Not sure how long decanted, but drinking well now. Some secondary aromatic development, e.g. tobacco and leather. Much fresher than 10 and very long.
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8/26/2016 - Edeon Likes this wine: 97 Points
DC. Reminded me of Pontet Canet 2009. Fantastic.
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7/19/2016 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
With air, and effort, smoke, tobacco, wet earth, cassis, blackberry, spice box, thyme and a hint of truffle make their wine from the glass. Full bodied, concentrated, powerful, tanninc, balanced and refined, in a masculine way, the wine requires another decade to soften and become civilized. That being said, I'm sure your patience will be rewarded.
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6/16/2016 - michael47 Likes this wine: 90 Points
Dark dark color in this 10+ year old Cab Merlot blend. Lots of smoke, black fruits whiff of loam/leather. Nice mouth feel and good balance of acids and fruit but not as extracted as I expected given the color.
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5/30/2016 - wineotim Likes this wine: 95 Points
Amazingly beautiful to look at and sniff in the glass. Very youthful appearance. Deep, dark crimson color, intensely focused dry fruit that is hidden behind a wall of tannin...and this makes me smile. Razor like acid. This is so structured, so young, so firm, so elegant and so precise. Long finish, with lots of grip that won't let go...and this obviously has a long life ahead of it. Not even a hint that this wine is in its maturity window. Score will go higher in a few years.
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4/29/2016 - Romol Likes this wine: 93 Points
Decanted 2.5 hours. Maybe it would have been even better with a longer decant. Still young, i think it will be better in a few years. 92-93 pts.
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3/27/2016 - bonedoc wrote: 96 Points
Popped cork early in the day, then decanted for dinner. Ready for business. Gorgeous nose of minerality, dark purple fruits, outstanding concentration and a long lingering finish. Absolutely gorgeous! Drink w long decant or over next 15 yrs.
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3/20/2016 - kbcadeponei wrote: 95 Points
Serious wine, instigating and of unmatched finesse. Initially brought red meat, bacon, mushrooms and ripe blackberry. Later on it started opening up into more complex layers such as cherry and mentholated raspberries, peppermint, rosemary, caramel and burnt peanuts, with floral nuances of acacias. Full and velvety entry on palate but rapidly becoming astringent, from front to back, revealing massive tanins, backed up by precise acidity and alcoholic punch. All this structure restrains the palate a bit, but reveals, with intensity, sweet blackberry, licorice, wet dirt and graphite, leading to a long finish, sophisticated, with tobacco, vanilla and spices. Will be huge in 3 to 4 years. 95-97
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2/4/2016 - Plabella Likes this wine: 95 Points
fabulous wine drank with Diane & Ken Clemens. Dark ruby color greta dark fruit good balance long taste
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1/30/2016 - farinas Likes this wine: 95 Points
This is amazing stuff. Putting the infanticide aside, this is a dream wine. It's got it all, dark fruits, red currants, graphite, espresso. The palate is packed with fruits and thick tannins ensuring a long finish. This is one for the library. Leave it alone if you can resist the temptation. 95+
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1/12/2016 - fcxj wrote: 92 Points
Dinner with Herve Berland. Well made, but didn't have the wow of 2009/2010 for me.
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12/24/2015 - jskuek Likes this wine: 93 Points
Decant for 3 hours, but clearly not enough. Drink over 2 hours and it keeps improving. Med+, Minerals, tobacco, gravels, complex and very long finishing.
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12/3/2015 - k H i L o Likes this wine: 91 Points
De "bon" à "excellent" au fur et à mesure des minutes. Ouvrir 1h avant consommation. Encore très jeune.Très puissant mais néanmoins très agréable. Dans 5 ans, il sera énorme...
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11/24/2015 - AHVinoFile Likes this wine: 97 Points
[LFW's Château Montrose Dinner with Herve Berland at Saint Crispin Restaurant, Melbourne; 65CS, 31M, 3.5CF, 0.5PV; Alc 13.2%] Dense dark color, purple rim. Strikingly youthful blackberry blackcurrant bouquet with notions of earth, mineral, black raspberry, black cherry, blueberry, cassis, tobacco, leather, truffle, spice box & toast. Quite full, very ripe, intense, deep, concentrated lush & powerful black fruit flavors, seamlessly interlaced with massive ripe tannins, substantial velvety extracts & fine zesty acidity; full & rich, sweet & supple despite its superlative structure, immense concentration & awesome power. Long, refined & lush finish.
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11/19/2015 - Leonis Likes this wine: 93 Points
still young and can age for 10-20 years.
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11/12/2015 - Vinedict wrote:
Chateau Montrose 2005: Ripe blackcurrants, mint leaves intermingled with leathery hide. Cigar box notes come to mind with also a hint of toasty oak. The wine is juicy on the entry with enigmatic light footed fruits, vanillin and camphor on the finish. Still grainy tannins, but overall great balance of fruit and acidity. Approachable now but could and should be left to evolve over the next decade or so. #sommelier #montrose
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11/7/2015 - affordableCollector wrote: 92 Points
garnet, in color. earth, wet soil, clove, baking spices, dark fruit, on the nose. blackberry, raspberry, clove, spice, oak, on the palate. medium plus acid, medium plus tannins, on this tight finish. this wine needs at least 5-10 years to soften.
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11/1/2015 - Grinner wrote: 93 Points
19th Annual Lyon 10 Year Retrospective (Chez Lyon in Eugene, OR): The 93 score was from day 2. In this blind tasting and despite the 18 hr double decant, this particular bottle was a brute. Very dark, tight, and tannic. You had to use a little imagination to get much out of it. It still has a purple color in its core. There's cassis, cigar box, and some tar mixed with espresso. Blind, I gave it 90 pts during the tasting. It was obviously better on day two and seems to have even more potential, our co-tasters agreed it was great. Give this to your children...
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10/29/2015 - acyso wrote: 90 Points
Annual Comparative Bordeaux Tasting (2000/2005) (Chicago, IL): This was very similar to the 2000 in that it was earth-driven and slightly barnyardy. On the other hand, it seems that a bit of the acidic lift has been traded in for sweeter and riper fruit. Easy to see this is darker and more heavily focussed on the black fruit end of the spectrum.
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10/23/2015 - La Cave d'Argent Likes this wine: 95 Points
2015 New York Wine Experience Trip; 10/19/2015-10/27/2015 (New York City, NY): A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc and 0.5% Petit verdot, this 10-year-old wine (sampled from a bottle ex-château) tastes like a newly-released Bordeaux. Opaque crimson and packed with crème de cassis, licorice, graphite, plum, tobacco and earth, it delivers its flavor payload on a full-bodied, freshly acidic, harmoniously alcoholic, firmly tannic frame. Mouth-coating and impressively dense in the middle, it closes with impressive length but also with substantial tannic grip. This will be a long-lived wine that will require another decade or so to reach plateau. Drink 2025-2045.
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10/22/2015 - walkerjfw wrote: 93 Points
New York Wine Experience - lots of tastings...shorter notes...: Good to try this wine at NYWE, nicely aged Bdx, one of my go-to wines.
Rich purple color, nose of red fruits, cigar box, leather.
Fruit is ripe and forward (by BdX standards), dark fruits, graphite, tobacco, cassis...long finish. Tannins still integrating, wine is still a few years away from its prime drinking window (in my opinion), should be very nice in time
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9/27/2015 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 92 Points
Pulled the cork Friday morning on a bottle previously accessed via Coravin, slow-ox and consumed Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Bottom line for me this just is not ready - it shows some potential, heavy and regal purple in the glass, on the palate some red fruits, leather, spice, Cuban cigar. But it just never fully seemed to be open for business, pretty restrained nose. I have almost 2 cases of this and I will try to not touch any until 2020, however I realistically do not think this will offer true enjoyment before 2025. This really is for the long term and I have my fingers crossed it shows better in a few years time.
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9/19/2015 - mkoss Likes this wine: 98 Points
perfect, sublime, like drinking the bordeaux of the gods. hyperbole? no!
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9/12/2015 - pavel_p wrote:
Montrose dinner (Singapore): This was tight as a drum. We returned a first bottle as it seemed corked but was not too convinced about the second bottle either. Plenty of wood, was only drinkable with food. Needs much more time (10 years?).
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7/22/2015 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 92 Points
Had a glass for lunch next to Leoville Poyferre 2005. I had a clear preference for the latter (which I rated 95). However, the Montrose is certainly a fantastic wine but it feels that this one will really benefit from another 5-10 years before you get rewarded. It feels a bit (too) reserved and diplomatic right now - compared to the Poyferre the fruit was barely noticeable. Although a good wine I really hope this one improves with age as I have almost 2 cases left. Time will tell... I have a half bottle left of this one as I accessed via Coravin - I will look to give the remaining bottle a healthy decant of 5 hours + (for this tasting it was pop and pour and left in glass for half an hour). .
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6/28/2015 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
A big, juicy, mineral driven, blackberry filled, tobacco, smoke, cigar box, Asian spice, Cuban cigar and cassis filled perfume lets you know you’re not in OZ anymore. This is concentrated, full bodied, powerful, rich, intense and very tannic. Yet, the tannins are so ripe, there is so much rich fruit, the wine can be enjoyed today if you like a primary drinking experience. It’s lush, mouth filling, regal and refined.
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5/30/2015 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 95 Points
A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, and a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot shows excellent complexity and also massive tannins. Very rustic nose and palate (reminds me of an obscure Languedoc). Medium body with notes of barnyard, lead, raspberry, eucalyptus, chocolate covered blueberries, and minerals. A 5 hour decant only hinted at this wines future potential.
http://www.maxsatisfactionwine.com/post/120328575364
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5/16/2015 - bestdamncab Likes this wine: 94 Points
Bordeaux Confidential USA, nose of cigar box, black currants, mocha, and allspice, more of the same on the palate, big body, mouth coating fruit, just lovely, at it's best with a minimum decant to promote the bouquet, almost elegant, great complexity, long, long finish and flavorful aftertaste.
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5/16/2015 - RajivAyyangar wrote: 90 Points
Bordeaux Confidential SF (SF): decanted 3 hours in advance)
54% cab 46% merlot
Star-bright gorgeous ruby-red in the glass.
On the nose, bretty, and a bit of lambic character (some refermentation in the bottle?).
On the palate, undeniably great balance. Alcohol is only 13.2% but feels a bit more elevated. It makes sense to me that this is dominated by cabernet - it’s ripe, it’s full, but with less of the fur coat of Merlot.
Less plummy, dominated by tart dark cherry. But still a bit plush. Oak isn’t apparent to me. Good structure, aggressive tannins, ripe fruit.
Score: Around 9.
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5/16/2015 - Phenol73 Likes this wine: 96 Points
(Decanter's Bordeaux '05, '09, '10 tasting) :: My wine of the event. It is all here! The bouquet just fills the glass and is revealing a complete panoply of flavours. Very sweet & ripe tannins, balanced with incredible earth, minerals and clay, forest, mushroom, lifted aromatic herbs, flowers, a hint of mint. Exceptional.
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5/14/2015 - JJA Likes this wine: 95 Points
Tasted at the Zachys Bordeaux Confidential tasting on 5/14/15. This was one of the best reds I tasted that evening. Cherries, mushrooms. Medium-bodied, well integrated and long, chewy finish. Terrific.
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5/14/2015 - dchain Likes this wine: 95 Points
Way more impressive than the 2009 had at the same lunch, much more approachable but after all is a Montrose and their wines take so long to come around! Beautiful ruby with a very delicate perfume of ripe heathy Cassis fruit. Lovely mouthfeel and balance, great length and flavour. Sell 2009 to buy this better vintage!
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5/10/2015 - William Kelley Likes this wine: 98 Points
The 2005 Montrose is a young classic from this great property. The nose is still properly primary and reserved, with fresh, perfectly ripe blackcurrant fruit, graphite, rich soil tones, hints of cigar ash and a nice framing of cedary new oak. Dense, deep, concentrated and very pure, this wine is savoury and structured—an archetypically masculine Montrose that is surely destined to emerge as a benchmark in the decades to come.
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5/9/2015 - rossi.wine wrote: 94 Points
Mini vertical of 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2012. More detail to the nose than the 2010. Spices, tobacco, liquorice and smoke. A bit more approachable on the palate as well, still quite firm and grippy, but no hard edges. Great structure, fresh and powerful, quite savoury with great length. Needs time. 93-94+
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5/3/2015 - LWI wrote: 96 Points
31 Vintages of Château Montrose: 1928-2010; 5/2/2015-5/3/2015: Big, complex smell, dark berries. This turned out to be surprisingly open for a ’05, wonderfully balanced, intense and long. Big ball of fruit, yet elegant. Will become even more glorious.
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4/24/2015 - Collector1855 wrote: 96 Points
Commanderie de Bordeaux dinner. Dark ruby. Discrete nose of spices, dark fruit with some foresty spicy tone, brooding and complex. On the palate medium bodied "only" which may surprise you given the vintage but and with still gripping tannins. Ripe fruit while keeping a medium body with excellent balance and freshness really is the hallmark of the 2005 vintage. Consistent to my last tasting note, open this from 2020 onwards.
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3/26/2015 - BenBlu Likes this wine:
Tasted single blind. From the nose I had this down as St Estephe. It was in a line up with one other St Estephe and some other from St Julien. From coravin after half an hour in glass I noted shy on the nose a bit medicinal, on palate berries, mainly red, and a hint of vanilla. I guessed this to be the Cos 2006, which in this instance was better. After half an hour additional time in glass I noted improving. I withhold rating as I think this unlike the Cos 06 needs decanting, serious decanting, 3-5 hours I reckon, or wait another 10 years, these 2005s are just not ready yet.
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3/22/2015 - "Rhône Rider" Likes this wine: 92 Points
Blyantspiss, kirsebær, plommer. Litt varm rødfrukt. Slank, syrlig og livlig, og flott intensitet og en fin lengde. Trenger mye tid. 92(-97)
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3/12/2015 - hman888 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Decanted for three hours before pouring. I knew this was still young but wanted to see how it tasted at the ten year point. Deep dark purple, color consistent with it being very young still. Nose was big, with a ton of dark fruit, particularly dark cherries and blackberries. Palate was a combination of very big fruit, but larger than life tannins. This wine could age for a lot longer, the tannins are very grippy. Whenever the glass was empty we could smell barnyard, which would be overtaken by fruit if we poured more into the glass.
This is a bold wine with serious length. Plenty of fruit that will persist as the tannins gradually resolve. We will open the next bottle of this in 2-3 years to see how it develops.
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2/12/2015 - Papies wrote: 93 Points
2005 Red Bordeaux with Richard Brazier (Handford Wines, London): Dark red in colour. Glossy. Young wine, but its opening up. Mineral, rich fruit and show very nicely even at this very very young stage. Light spice.
Classy and elegant wine very similar to Cos albeit a touch more linear at this stage than the more giving Cos. No oak feel. Give this beauty time, 5yrs minimum or 10 better. 93 for now but watch the numbers grow with time.
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2/12/2015 - rossi.wine wrote: 95 Points
Dark fruit, some minerality on the nose, also showing spices and graphite. Grippy and pretty firm on the palate, backward, powerful tannins, again mineral, great structure, very long. Needs time, but lots of potential. 94-95+
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1/29/2015 - PanosKakaviatos Likes this wine: 95 Points
Bordeaux 2005 : Ten years on (Bordeaux Index London): A more substantial palate, tasted after Calon Segur. Focused. with ripe, high tannin, pronounced flavors and aromas of red and black fruit, and power and structure on the full bodied and long finishing palate. This is built to last and a top wine from 2005. Not quite as wow like as LLC, but in that ballpark.
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12/30/2014 - rdsboca wrote: 86 Points
Tight as a drum but started to open up after a few hours. Time will tell if this will rival the 2009. Fruit is there but too much structure for now. Maybe time will mellow it out.
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12/24/2014 - Yiannis wrote: flawed
The cork was half soaked and totally dry. It collapsed on recorking. The wine was oxidized.
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12/24/2014 - Indran Rajendra Likes this wine: 98 Points
You will be shaking every drop from the glass with this one. It has an opaque core and on the meniscus, at 9 years old, is a hint of mauve suggesting slow ageing and exceptional cellaring. After an hour in the decanter the nose was fully open offering up roses,gravel and a core of black cherries, blackcurrant and raspberries. I must admit to a having a life long preference for this "cusp of maturity" in Bordeaux. The palate was solid, full bodied and elegant. A masculine wine. The tannins were huge but unobtrusive.There was great intensity of fruit perhaps not surprising in this drought year. The length was also exceptional. Coravin first pour. 16 degrees C. Riedel Bordeaux glasses. Delicious. Parker in a tasting this year gives it 96 with a window of 2014 to 2064! The cork was pulled 3 days later at Tetsuya's with the same impressions as above.
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11/30/2014 - mclanew Likes this wine: 95 Points
Huge, tannic brooding wine with fantastic concentration - this needs more time. Red and black fruits, minerals, graphite and touch of cedar. Long long finish.
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11/29/2014 - pavel_p Likes this wine: 94 Points
Complex nose, forest floor, big tannins but also generous fruit, long finish. This is accessible but really needs much more time. 94+
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11/28/2014 - Collector1855 wrote: 95 Points
Taste during a Wine advocate event - A matter of taste. Dark purple. Discrete but complex nose of wet forest floor, some barnyard notes with dark fruit and earth, similar to a Latour. Medium-full bodied with gripping but ripe tannins, excellent length and good balance. Decant for 2h if you plan to drink it or wait until 2020. Similar to the 2010 in style but not as silky and precise.
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11/23/2014 - Nicholas81 wrote: 92 Points
Dark, big and brooding. Quite closed at this point of time. Suggest holding any bottles for some while before opening. Very good potential for the future.
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10/23/2014 - Axelpeter wrote: 98 Points
Chap
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7/6/2014 - Rob MacKay wrote:
Very nice with tons of potential. Recommend a healthy decant if you want to get the most out of it now.
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6/6/2014 - bengti Likes this wine: 97 Points
Way up there with a nose of abundant flavours and offset against a current near ideal balance of alcohol and acidity that in themselves are a testament to this exceptional this wine is. Fine and distinct tannins that complement rather than detract from the mouthfeel of the wine, and a spiced perfumed mid palate enjoins a long finish. A great vintage for a great Chateau.
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5/17/2014 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
If you like truffle with your cigars, you came to right place. From a blend of 65% Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc and just a dab of Petit Verdot at 05%, the wine is deep, long and concentrated with the needed structure and ample tannins to age. There is a lot of depth of raw material, but this requires serious time in the cellar to come around and be fun to taste.
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4/6/2014 - Wineguy76 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Young and full promises, this superbly balanced wine offers a deep, inky, ruby core and fragrant aromas of black currant, cinnamon as well as notes of Indian spice. Berries, chocolatey spice and licorice are the dominant flavors of this full bodied beauty with loads of lush tannins and an oh so unctuously soft texture. The long silky finish does not fail to live up to expectations either. This is a wonderful effort and yet another masterpiece of this epic vintage. It is already drinking exquisitely but won't reach its peak for another three years, where it should stay comfortably for three decades.
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2/27/2014 - Cheungtp Likes this wine: 95 Points
Montrose tasting with Herve Berland (HK Wine Vault): Young and likely still in the resting phase, but opened rather nicely and a pleasure to try at the tasting. The dark purple gem opened up with energetic cassis, earth, cedar and mesmerizing note of rose petal, a soothing touch to a wine that's sharp and deep. Excellently balanced palate, rich texture, packed with black cherry, wood, truffle and spice. Structured tannic spine, all elements pointing towards a great wine in the future.
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2/13/2014 - Jhcwine Likes this wine: 94 Points
Tasted at WS TWC OL. 10th Anniversary OL on January 22, 2014. I contributed the wine.
Limited notes: Nose - Tannic. Limited fruit. Too young. Palate - Much better than nose. Quite fine and will be even better in 5 years.
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2/2/2014 - macker100 wrote: 94 Points
Over dinner. Typical Montrose in early years, with really great nose of red berries, menthol, earth, currant. Palate still quite dry with big rich cherry fruit and smoke. Day 2 still quite tannic, not giving up much. Very classical and powerful, much like the '00 vintage. Will be great, most likely a 95-97 in five years.
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1/23/2014 - AWBryce Likes this wine: 91 Points
Slightly subdued nose compared to the 05 le gay, but the taste was incredible. Ripe blueberry, some astringency, long finish and some grainy tannins.
Surprisingly approachable, this will be stellar to those who are patient.
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1/4/2014 - maxima Likes this wine: 96 Points
Superbe Bordeaux, élégant, intense, costaud, raffiné...impressionnant même.
Le nez est sur la terre, le fenouil, les mures et la truffe avec une belle rasade d`épices sucrées.
Enn bouche, ample, concentré et puissant, les tannins sont charnus mais bien enrobés et assez granuleux. Un beau fruit mur et corquant avec du graphite et une belle acidité enveloppe complètement le palais.
Superbement long et tout simplement délicieux.
Sera grandiose dans 5-7 ans!
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11/18/2013 - Comte Flaneur wrote: 95 Points
Like the 2009 roughly 65% CS, 30% merlot. More noticeable berry aromas. This is superb wine. It is not as opulent as the 2009 but is extremely well balanced and very long, rich and powerful. It still needs a long time, but is starting to show a glimpse of its potential.
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11/16/2013 - Zweder Likes this wine: 94 Points
This is a classical wine! Concentrated bouquet with ripe dark fruits, cedar, spices etc. On the palate concentrated and juicy cassis and other dark fruits. A lot of good acidity and firm tannin which is drying in the finish. Forget about this wine at least until 2020. This will definitely be even greater around 2024+ Score 94++
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10/20/2013 - petitblanc wrote: 91 Points
La Fête du Bordeaux - 2011 Vintage (Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, Chicago): Just a touch green and fumy on the nose. Sweet and grapey fruit on the palate, growing brighter and fresher through the finish. This has much life ahead of it, but there are also some advanced notes. Odd wine, showing some interest and quality, but not nearly enough for the price.
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7/25/2013 - Jeff Leve wrote: 97 Points
The most enjoyable wine tasting experiences are usually due to a discovery. It could be a vintage not previously tasted, or a wine could show better and I am forced to rethink my view on that wine. 2005 Montrose tasted last night has me singing me a different tune. Previously, I found the wine impressive, but tannic and masculine. It lacked elegance. That's not my opinion today.
Licorice, earth, truffle, cassis and spice aromas required little effort to bring them out. Full bodied and intensely concentrated, this still tannic wine sported a muscular personality, but it was refined and elegant, in a masculine way. The long, powerful, ripe, round, dense finish remained on our palate for over 40 seconds, This will require decades to mature, but due to the ripeness and finesse of the tannins, fans that cannot wait for full maturity will enjoy an outstanding Bordeaux wine. I prefer 2003 Montrose, but make no mistake, 2005 Montrose is an outstanding Bordeaux wine.
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7/24/2013 - Dave Dalluge wrote: 94 Points
Montose Dinner (89, 90, 95, 96, 99, 00, 01, 05) Plus Others: I expected the worst after the 2000, but this showed surprisingly well. Red fruit and oak on the nose, but enjoyable. More red fruit and oak on the palate, but more like the '01 than the '00. Great texture and nice balance, but with tons of tannin from the mid-palate to the finish. Needs many years, but still showed surprisingly well.
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7/19/2013 - fdub Likes this wine: 94 Points
Color is a wonderful claret light red/purple. The nose shows a nice definition of minerality and poise. Lead pencil, touch of dried leather, herbs and dark fruits. The palate shows an old world class with wonderful depth and power but great precision. Drinking wonderfully now despite substantial tannic structure.
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5/15/2013 - Cinsault86 wrote: 95 Points
rett fra flasken, nydelig opulent og fokusert nese, masse modne og sødmefulle solbær, bly og en fin steinmineralitet. Svært elegant nese. I munnen svært konsentrert, høy syre og kraftige tanniner. Balanseres av flott frukt. Ganske stram vin. Lang. En klar lagrigskandidat. Dekantert 6 timer. Nesen er ganske lik. I munnen flott konsentrert og dyp frukt, masse solbær og mocca. 95p. Det som overrasket meg mest med vinen var hvordan den presterte dag 2. Frukten hadde tørket en del inn. Det kan skyldes at det var lite vin igjen i karaffelen for dette oppleves som en klar lagringskandidat.
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12/7/2012 - Zweder wrote: 93 Points
Luxurious and creamy bouquet with a lot of luxurious oak and some smoke; very tempting. On the palate black fruits and firm but round tannin which still needs (a lot of) time. A full bodied and great wine with a lot of potential. Wait at least until 2020. 93++
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11/2/2012 - THA wrote:
Last tasted about three years ago. Three years ago it was unpleasantly backward and tannic, with almost no fruit. But now the unmistakeable black currant fruit has emerged. A sweet perfume is also there. It's still too young and backward to recommend to drink. But this wine is guaranteed to mature into something special.
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10/8/2012 - cadams wrote: 94 Points
Nose is already showing some secondary charecter, mushrooms, red fruits, a little barnyard
Palate- Tooth coating tannins, medium red fruit, cherry, high acidity
Medium finish
I'd give this one 10-15 years in the cellar
94+?
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10/6/2012 - IWineAlot wrote: 92 Points
CT Offline WI Take 2: Judgement of Madison(Paris) Tasting & BYOB Dinner (Madison, WI): Right off the bat I got this dirtyness, forest floor, tobacco/herbal component along with plums.
Harsh tannins and a little heat on the finish. Needs time to mellow out.
SS 92+pts.
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10/6/2012 - petitblanc wrote: 90 Points
CT Wisconsin Offline 2; 10/5/2012-10/6/2012 (Madison, WI): Fairly reticent nose and palate, ample smooth tannins. This probably has more to show with further aging, but what comes through now is rather generic and unpromising. Still, there is nothing unpleasant here at all. Tasted blind. Group #9 of 10, my #7 of 10.
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9/22/2012 - jkoenen wrote: 93 Points
Cos-Montrose Battle (Restaurant Bottles, Sas van Gent): Inky, dense and sultry, earthy, great spicebox component, wonderful mystique nose. In the mouth this is very much overdone, lots of make-up. Very tannic, mountains of oak, needs a lot of time. Fantastic nose, brutal palate. 18-18.5/20
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3/23/2012 - Dokken wrote: 97 Points
Youthful purple with a slightly garnet rim. Vivid nose with evident new oak around black fruit and mint. Dense. Lovely texture with refreshing acidity, fruit purity and firm fine-grained tannins. Fat and fresh. Intense with a bright future. My kind of wine.
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2/25/2012 - clairenclarence wrote: 93 Points
dont attempt to open tis bttl unless u hve excess $.its a great bttl but far too young to drnk.tis bttl mite slightly outshine the gruaud larose 00 in time to cm.pls read my gruaud larose 00 tasting notes
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12/17/2011 - the player wrote: 92 Points
Decanted for 3 hours, very youthful purplish dark burgundy color. Exotic nose of tobacco, red earth, cassis and spices. Very soft entry on palate but very tannic, very mineral, not to be touched for another few years as the fruit is subdued by the massive tannins. Very powerful wine but way too young.
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11/25/2011 - Sleepy Dave wrote: 94 Points
Chateau Montrose vertical (Tower Club): Alcohol :: 13%
I was surprised how expressive the nose was: the aroma is nothing but exotic and complex: tobacco, sandalwood, smoke meat, leather, creme de cassis, blackcurrant liquor, mushroom and floral at the background. Structured, highly intense and powerful but well delineated and refine. This has superb sappiness on the palate with endless layer of sweet dark fruits, mineral and dry extract all wrapped in an ultra fine package. Massive level of tannin here, but the tannin is chewy, sweet along with firm polished structured that will permit it to continue evolve for the next 2decades. The finish was a little bit tight but offer better juiciness and great length when it opened up more. 94-95
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10/31/2011 - G_H Likes this wine: 90 Points
Carl Studer tasting: Napa against Bordeaux (Hotel Metropole, Zurich): Goat cheese, a bit backward and muted on the nose, quite dominant acidity
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10/22/2011 - Yiannis wrote: 95 Points
I opened this out of curiousity, just to see how does a top wine from a top vintage taste at such an early stage, given the fact that I have another 3 in my cellar.
Very dark, opaq color. Liquorice, ink, graphite and dark berries on the nose. Full bodied, with incredable concentration and extract, very firm but of excellent quality tannins, high acidity and an almost endless aftertaste. At its current stage it tastes more like a wine concentrate than a real wine. Amazing potential, but I do not intend to open the next bottle before at least 5 years. I scored this wine somewhere between its current enjoyability (say 93) and its future potential (say 97).
On day 2, the nose was fruitier and the tannins had softened, allowiing the fruit to shine on the palate as well. A majestic pairing with risotto and roast lamb.
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9/1/2011 - Wine_lvr Likes this wine: 95 Points
Montrose Vertical Tasting 1989 - 2005 (Work in Progress) (Switzerland): Tasted blind: Very dark in color. Nose of leather, berries and dark fruits (plums). The wine still shows quite hard tannins as one would expect from a 2005 of this quality. The wine is concentrated and long, showing wonderful flavors of dark chocolate, dark berries and tar/smoke. At the moment quite backward. I am quite certain that this will be a blockbuster Montrose once it finds its blance/harmony. Still very youthful. Drink 2020 - 2040
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7/25/2011 - Troplong05 wrote: 97 Points
Tasted on the 12th April 2011. This wine had incredibly seductive nose of truffles and cocoa powder, strong backbone, powerful attitude, iron strong structure, wonderful balance and mega long finish. A fantastic example of how exceptional this vintage really is!
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5/21/2011 - drwine2001 wrote:
Monthly Miscellaneous Bordeaux Tasting (K&L Wines, San Francisco): Deep ruby. Closed but some creosote and anise-one of those wines where you'd swear that you can actually smell the tannins. Dry but incredible extract and underlying blackberry confit. Long with ripe, round tannins and some perceptible wood which will surely be absorbed over time. Outstanding potential but it must be decades away from maturity. Despite this, it is not too severe to taste and appreciate now, which is quite different than old style St. Estephes.
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4/26/2011 - Maximus Brutus wrote: 95 Points
Deep purple colour with lovely elegant and complex dark fruit and oak nose. Fabulously intense blackcurrant flavour with a hint of liquorice. Tannins present but very smooth. I think in a few more years it will be incredible. One of the most enjoyable bottles of Bordeaux wine I have ever drank.
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1/30/2011 - Stefanos T. wrote:
When opened the wine was medium ruby with a rim wiht purple highlights, the next day if I'm not mistaken the colour deepened dramatically to become almost opaque! Nose is very youthful and of medium intensity with aromas of excellent new oak dominating. Fruit is red, concentrated and there are also sweet spice and floral notes. Very focused and tight. In the mouth it is medium + bodied with ripe silky tannins, vanilla and creamy oaky flavours are supported by ample fruit and both are balanced by quite high acidity. Wine of elegance and finesse at the moment and in no way a monster. Still not even approaching readiness to drink as it is rather tight, focused and oak needs integration, yet it is still a pleasure to drink.
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1/20/2011 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
Caramel, spice, black currants, black cherry and tobacco notes make up the nose. Tannic, full bodied and concentrated, as well as tight. Not very expressive in the mouth. This wine is sleeping and needs at least another decade before it beings to open. This is not in the class of the great vintages for Montrose like 89, 90 or 03
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1/8/2011 - dxpian wrote: 95 Points
Impressively deep purple hue with a ruby rim exhibiting elegance and finesse! Complex nose with meaty, dusty and mineral overtone leading to an outburst of very dark fruit with black currant, blackberry, black cherry aromas adorned by some subtle but noticeable black licorice undertone. First reaction is barn-yard manure coupled with rocky, earthy soil on a vegetable farm. The bouquet shows some vanilla chocolate, cedar, leather and cigar box components. It is a warm, intense and spicy nose overall, which shows the full power and sturdiness of St. Estèphe and this great Château! All of these translate into a full-bodied wine, very rich and viscous on the palate. The attack is tannic but opens up quickly. It's like taking a bitter chocolate bite, followed by an explosion of opulent fruits with lots of black currant, black cherry, ripe plum and licorice. There's bracing acidity and firm tannins on the mid-palate, forming a solid and balanced structure supporting the other nuances. Very long finish and the intense heat persists for almost 20 seconds before the panoply of balanced acidity, licorice, leather, cigar box and layers upon layers of fruit shows up harmoniously. Excellent depth and complexity on the finish! Great longevity: this wine will evolve gracefully in your cellar for years to come. Already accessible with decanting, but best after 2014.
P.S. Caught a bad cold the very next day... couldn't smell just about everything else in the world, but the nose of the wine was still going strong! Amazing intensity!.... then after a week in the bottle (with a stopper on) when I got my smell back, the wine still maintained its structure and vibrant fruit characters. You can of course feel the oxidation, but it was still quite nice!
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11/13/2010 - beezer6 wrote: 95 Points
Saturday Tasting Group (Knightsbridge Wine Shop (Northbrook, IL)): Lovely inky nose. Expansive New World styling. Heady and blockbuster fruit. Complete. Long creamy opulent finish.
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3/18/2010 - lumpyelbow wrote: 91 Points
Bordeaux meets Burgundy (King Eddy Toronto): Preferred the '06 in a side by side. This was extremely dry and had no release as the fruit was buried (deep) in the swath of tannin. Keep forever?
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2/2/2010 - Grinner wrote: 93 Points
Score may be impacted by tasting with the humbling 2000 Montrose. Still, a great wine in it's own right. Purple color and a little tight despite 2 hrs+ in the decanter. Great flavors and length, will hold for decade(s).
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6/25/2009 - noppakit s. wrote: 95 Points
Opened 18 hours before drinking. I limit the air flows by put the air in plastic bag covered the top of the bottle.
Hints a bit of new technology smell then gone. Typical young and old style of Montrose scent, tannin, less fruit but mild wood, earth, good deep and dramatic.
Still plenty of delicate tannin, very good balance, firm structure, firm texture. These elements can hold on for 50-60 years from now.
Aftertaste is beautiful, deep, firm but not aggressive, long...long finished. The promising one !!!
Drink 2016 - 2060..........................95-97/100.................................
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6/5/2009 - Gee wrote: 95 Points
Must get. Must must
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8/24/2008 - englishman's claret wrote:
Opaque; black as night. Very concentrated blackberry, cassis, earth, but still very tight after a four hour decant. To be expected I suppose. Gripping tannins. I didn't score this one, but I'm sure it'll be beautiful in about twenty years.
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5/28/2008 - noppakit s. wrote: 97 Points
Umm....This is a truly classic Montrose since it cames back to basic in 2004.
Yes !!! I get back to stick with it again. For 2nd Growth, Montrose is No.1....the terroir, the texture, the great aging time.
A bottle of 1955 is still very nice today, far beyond from others....
This 2005 is the greatest Montrose for me, classic nose of Montrose, very deep but not so clean because I can not get through the wonderful scents intermixed.
Flowery, amazing round wooden scent, dramatic. I hardly can't take my nose out of a glass...very seductive and sexy.
Lovely full-bodied, silky texture, perfect ABC, elegant and delicate tannin. Too young but wonderful...beautifully well-made.
Aftertaste is Burgundy...soft, smooth and long finished nearly 2 minutes or more....
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Open 24 hours...Drink now - 2040....or more....97+/100...... " You cool my desire "
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3/9/2008 - PanosKakaviatos wrote:
What a difference between the Montrose and the Cos, the two stars of St. Estephe. Montrose tends to be less showy, less velvety when young, but more brooding. This was a case in point, at least from barrel. The first impression was of tannic bite, but then I realized the sheer power of this wine with a focus not unlike that of the Latour. With 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 31% Merlot (plus a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot), this wine showed backbone. It will certainly turn out to be something special after its barrel aging. Not quite as refined as the Cos.
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3/7/2008 - mbk07 wrote: 95 Points
Superb, everything is present, big wine
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12/9/2007 - Zweder wrote: 93 Points
Loaded with fruit and oak. Very luxurious, complete and complex wine with a lot of extract. Everything in good harmony.
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4/10/2006 - PanosKakaviatos Likes this wine: 95 Points
BORDEAUX 2005 / Cabernet rules; 4/5/2006-4/10/2006 (Bordeaux): What a difference between the Montrose and the Cos, the two stars of St. Estephe. Montrose tends to be less showy, less velvety when young, but more brooding. This was a case in point. The first impression was of tannic bite, but then I realized the sheer power of this wine with a focus not unlike that at Latour. With 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 31% Merlot (plus a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot), this wine showed backbone, and will certainly turn out to be something special after its barrel aging. Still, not as impressive as the Cos this year. 93-96
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3/28/2006 - Burgundy Al wrote:
2005 Bordeaux en Primeur; 3/26/2006-3/28/2006 (Bordeaux France): En Primeur tasting. Brooding black fruit is massively powerful, but with firm tannins followed by more firm tannins. I find it tough tasting Montrose young, so probably didn't fully appreciate this wine. I think it will need to 2020 or later, 90-92 point potential, but everybody I was with liked this far more than I did today, so it probably much better.
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