Introduction

Luckily, Etienne Théodore Dumoulin, the owner of the Calon estate from 1812 onwards, discovered that the scrub land some distance from his castle looked promising for growing vines. So, about 1820 he cleared some plots in the land known as Escargeon and by 1825 raised a castle there and cleared even more land. The local heather on the slight hilltop blossom with pinkish flowers during summer, hence the vineyard was termed mont-rose (a bit more charming than the snail reference), or actually Montrose-Ségur at the time. It was indeed an accomplishment that in just 30 years its fame was so established that it surpassed the mother estate Calon-Ségur in 1855 Classification and became a second growth.

As expected the wines were powerful. However, not as rustic as projected, but for most vintages – elegance is not the word. Lots of charm instead. Except for the ‘34 and to some extent the ‘47, all bottles were correct and typical, I would say. Leaving out a rather dark chapter in the 70s and early 80’s, the quality has been outstanding for at least 100 years.