2021 Château Montrose

The 2021 Montrose is an inward, brooding wine—classic Montrose, in other words, just attenuated in its intensity by the cool growing season. Spice, tobacco, cedar, menthol, scorched earth, gravel and a touch of new oak open over time, but the 2021 is really a wine that requires considerable cellaring to reach its potential. Then again, it is Montrose. Elegance meets power here.

- Antonio Galloni (12/2023)

This shows Montrose personality with blackberries, blackcurrants and graphite, along with some spices and cedar. Medium-bodied with very fine tannins and a juicy finish. Refined and balanced. Drink or hold. (07/2024)

The Grand Vin 2021 Château Montrose checks in as 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot, raised mostly in new oak. It's an absolute classic expression of this terrior, offering pure cassis and assorted darker currant fruits that give way to more damp earth, violet, and leafy tobacco nuances. With medium-bodied richness, perfect integration of its acidity, tannins, and oak, beautiful mid-palate depth, and a great finish, it's going to benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this still showing beautifully at age 30. It's a remarkable wine in this challenging vintage. (04/2024)

A blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2021 Montrose is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs some patient swirling to reveal notes of iron ore, mossy tree bark, and chalk dust, leading to a core of fresh blackcurrants, kirsch, and lilacs, plus a hint of pencil shavings. The light to medium-bodied palate is tightly coiled, offering shimmery layers of minerals, black and red berries, and fragrant earth-inspired flavors, supported by a fine-grained texture, finishing with great freshness and length. Impactful! (04/2024)

Sleek, with sufficient fruit to accommodate the tangy acidity of the vintage, this allows black cherry, damson plum and violet notes to stretch out nicely, with a late echo of singed alder. Poised and nicely done for the vintage. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2026 through 2037. 12,500 cases made.

- J.M.

The remarkable 2021 Montrose gets my nomination for the title of "wine of the vintage" in the Médoc. Wafting from the glass with a deep bouquet of cassis and dark berries mingled with subtle hints of mint, orange, pencil shavings and spices, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a layered and multidimensional core of fruit underpinned by beautifully ripe, refined tannins. Concluding with a long, resonant finish, it entirely transcends the limitations of the year. This young classic, reminiscent of the estate's 1996 but far better, is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot.

- William Kelley (02/2024)