April 20, 2024 - Still needs a minimum of 2 hours to begin to open. Wonderfully complex nose of cedar, red current, earth, meat and leather. In the mouth, correspondingly complex. Mix of red and dark fruit. Tannins present, but soft. Long beautiful finish.
April 8, 2024 - Needs a lot of time to open.
April 5, 2024 - A thrilling St. Estephe, so smoky & animalistic that many of us went directly to N. Rhone. So youthful, wow… according to Jeff Leve it is finally in its drinking window since last year. A blend of 65% CS, 25% Merlot & 10% CF. Explosive intensity aroma of smoked meat, cigar box, earth, smoky prunes, cassis, leather, touch of barn & garrigue. Full body, echoing delightful smokiness from aroma layered with saline earthy red and black fruits, mild dustiness, sublime complexity and concentration, soft medium tannins.
March 2, 2024 - Early Mar 2024, Rheingau Gourmet Festival, rarity diner “25 vintages of Chateau Montrose”: according to the sommelier double decanted for up to 3 hours; deep crimson color; thriving bouquet of cassis, cherries, mint and herbs; smooth, round, and fruity texture.
Outstanding Montrose 1989, however, one step behind the 1990 vintage.
Vintages of flight II:
1975 - 1986 - 1989 - 1990 - 1991 - 1994 - 1996
February 24, 2024 - Almost freakishly good, apotheosis of St. Estèphe mature glory. Medium ruby, amber edge. Majorly intense on nose and palate. The blackest of fruit, juicy acidity, firm integrated slightly coarse tannins, great length. Cannot improve but it doesn’t have to. While it may not fade any time soon there is no reason to wait if you want to catch it at peak. The ‘89 seems more consistent and just as good as the (in)famous 1990 version.
January 12, 2024 - This bottle was stubborn to come around even after a 5-hour double-decant. It opened more in the glass to reveal a fabulous depth of black fruits and lots of earthy, rustic depth. The texture was seamless and the finish showed still strong and slightly coarse tannins. There is a wonderful complexity developing here with notes of Asian spices, dark tilled earth and horse leathers. This bottle, at least, could use more time but love the terroir that's starting to show here. 94+
December 25, 2023 - Sweet cedar-blackberry nose; resolved tannin; silky and lively; long sweet finish.
December 3, 2023 - There it is! This was a near perfect wine. For all the 89s I’ve enjoyed, this was on the more elegant, delicate end of the spectrum. Yes, you have blackcurrant, a little sweet fig and tar, with good resolution, but it’s lighter bodied than the 90 Montrose, and cleaner, less rustic than say 89 Pichon Lalande. Anyway, great wine that can sometimes be (wrongly) lost in the shadow of the 1990.
December 3, 2023 - Light, clear, bricking. Some caramel, some menthol and eucalyptus. Long-ish finish. "Beautiful" shows up in my written notes a few times.
December 3, 2023 - Took a very long time to open up. Slow oxed from 2 to 7 PM! Opened for Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts convention in DC 2023. Very, very bretty. Once open (by 8 PM), it was a very full bodied intense wine with dark, dark fruit like plums but with lots of leather notes to it.