Chateau Montrose 1996 St. Estephe Trophy Bordeaux Wine Review

Hello everyone, Trophy Wine Hunter. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. Today I'm pleased to bring you a wine that I've wanted to drink many times. This is the 1996 Chateau Moros. So the history of Chateau Moros begins in the mid-18th century. There was a person called Alexandre de Segur who owned other great Bordeaux wineries such as Mouton, Lafite and Latour. And he actually owned the property. He gave it to his son Nicolas Alexandre. And at that time the winery was called Le Land d'Escargion. And he then sold it in 1778 to Étienne Théodore Dumoulin. By 1815, they started to really plant the winery and started to make wines. And so it's because the vineyard was not producing vines prior to 1815. It's one of the youngest wineries that made the 1855 classification system. And so if you look at it from that point of view, it was really only a winery, a fairly young winery before it was judged in the 1855 classification, like 40 years. So not very much for a winery. And that must mean that they did a great job or the vineyard was a really nice site. The name comes from a legend that says that supposedly that there was Heather was in the flowers and basically it turned the hillsides pink. And so when the sailors saw this mount, they saw a pink mountain. And pink in French is rosé. So it's Mount Rosé or Mount Rose. And so that's how you got the name Mount Rose. In 1861, the winery was sold to Mathieu Dauphis and then sold to another family, the Charmouleau family in 1896. And interesting fact is the owner, Louis-Victor Charmouleau, was actually born at Chateau Fichac in Saint-Émion. If you look at the history of a lot of the other top wineries, there's not a lot of change in ownership with Mount Rose. It seemed like there was quite a bit of ownership change. Chateau Mount Rose remained in the Charmouleau family for over three generations and it became a very great estate. It was producing really great wines and there was actually a, it was such a good wine that there was a brothers, some brothers called the Bouillages brothers. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right, but they tasted the 1989 vintage. They were so happy with it that they said, wow, if we ever had a chance, we want to buy it. And they subsequently did buy it in 2006. And so they were, it was bought by Martin and Thomas Bouillages. I hope I'm saying that right. And they have their big conglomerate with lots of money. They have a telecom company and a construction company. They also added Trocoy Lalonde to their portfolio. And Trocoy Lalonde is many, a couple of years back when I was in Bordeaux, tasted the wine. It was a spectacular valley wine. It has risen in price quite a bit in the last couple of years. They hired Jean-Bernard Dalmas as the kind of the manager of the estate. He was formerly with Chateau Aubriant and then brought in Hervé Berland, who was also at Chateau Mouton. I believe he just left the winery in late 2022. Chardonnay Montrose is trying to be, I guess, organic by 2025. And it obtains a lot of its energy, both Montrose and Trocoy Lalonde, obtain a lot of their energy through the use of solar, wind, and water with a sophisticated geothermal energy system. Winery is planted right now 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, with many of the vines close to 40 years of age. I think they'd like to get the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon a little bit higher in the future. In total, the vineyard is about 95 hectares. In 2010, they previously were about 70-something hectares. They added 22 hectares from Chateau Philanzaguerre. But the 22 hectares that they added was actually part of the original estate of Montrose. If you watch my channel before, one of the things I look at with wineries is how many temperature-controlled vats they have. To me, that's important because that allows more precise vinification of the wines. Then you can distinguish different plots and ferment or vinify them separately. If it's not good, you can actually take them out of the mix. Chateau Montrose has 59 temperature-controlled stainless steel vats of various sizes. I think that adds to the wine quality. On average, the wine is aged 60% in new French oak barrels for 18 months. They do produce a second wine. Interestingly, one of the first wineries to produce a second wine produced it in 1860. This was not a new thing for them in terms of producing a second wine. They actually do have a third wine but a lot of that is sold to restaurants. Typically, the grapes from the vineyard are divided 40% that go into the Grand Vin and about 30% into the second wine and 30% that is either the third wine or the sold off as bulk. But over the years, they've put less of the vineyard or the grapes into the Grand Vin. They've probably cut the production by about half since the 80s and it's down to about 15,000 cases per vintage of the Grand Vin. This is a bit of a throwback wine. This is from 1996. At that time, the blend for that year was a 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Bordeaux. Montrose is one of the most tannic wines that I see and very difficult to drink in my opinion and understand when it's young. So, I wouldn't even try to approach a Montrose after 2000 at this point. It's really, really tight. So, 96% is, I think, approachable at this point but it's one of these wines that I've had experiences with Montrose where it's really quite undrinkable when it's young. It really needs a lot of time. This is not a wine, even in weak vintages, it's not a wine that actually is very giving in the first 20 years, in my opinion, of its life. And it can age for a long time. So, I don't think wines in the 80s. So, for instance, if you're thinking of drinking 82 vintage, a lot of those 82 vintage wines are kind of past their prime. I think Montrose would still be going strong. So, let's have a taste of this wine. I'll let you know that I had two days ago, we just opened it, popped it into a decanter, drank it for a little while. It was actually quite nice. It was showing quite nicely, very drinkable and accessible. I've had it in the and now it's fully aerated for another day. The color is still great. I'm not going to do a close up with this bottle, but it's very red in terms of the color, a little bit of aging, but I think people will be surprised if you thought it was a 1996, it more looks like a mid 2000 wine. So, in terms of the color, in terms of the taste of the smell, lots of fruit still on this wine. And it's actually a very nice, at this point, it's got a lot of smokiness, tobacco, charcoal, black fruit. It's a wine that if you like very tannic wines or very full body wines, I think you really enjoy this wine. Man, I've been having some great luck drinking some great bottles in their prime. Right now, this wine is in its prime. The tannins are resolved, so it's not high. It's not a high tannin wine anymore. And you get the fruit. It's full body. So, it's got a lot of fruit still. It's got a mixture of some red fruit, but still some dark fruit. I see a lot of a little floral component, but on the aftertaste, nice chalkiness, earthiness, tobacco, charcoal, smokiness. That's what it reminds me of. It almost reminds me of a Malbec or a great barbecue wine. I would think this wine really would go well with a barbecue steak, just because of that smoky and charcoal aftertaste on this wine. This is really nice too, because the alcohol content in 96 must be 12 and a half. So, the alcohol content isn't high, but it's still full flavored, full bodied. You are getting a little bit of acidity on the end and the aftertaste. So, that's after a day. So, I think this wine is actually ready to drink right now in its prime. It could go another five years easily, but I think it's really drinking very well now with minimal aeration. And I really am very pleased with this wine at this point. I wouldn't say it's a blockbuster. It's not the best Marose I've ever had. And quite frankly, Marose is not my favorite wine. It's not prototypical for me because it's not soft. It's to me quite a tannic, quite a muscular wine. And so to me, that's not really my style of wine. But it's for people that like more a heavier body, they like Rhone wines, they like American wines. I think of the Bordeaux wines, you'd enjoy Marose. My score of this wine is going to be 93 points. It's a very, very nice example of Marose. And I'm really glad I drank it at this time because I think if I drank this maybe five years earlier, it'd be really, really tight and quite not as high a score. I think this is kind of where it's going to sit at its plateau for a couple of years, but I think I've got the wine at the right time in its cycle. Hope you enjoyed this video. Until next time, happy drinking.