Tasting Notes
Neal Martin 98
The 2009 Montrose is a brilliant wine from the estate. It has a detailed and intense bouquet with blackberry, cedar, crushed stone and light floral scents, tightly wound and clearly preparing for long term ageing. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannin, perfectly judged acidity. Almost symmetric in style with a finish so precise that beggars belief that this is a 2009. Wonderful. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits Ten Year On tasting.
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2060
Vinous 97
Bright, deep ruby-red. Drop-dead gorgeous nose offers cassis, mineral and candied violet aromas of great depth. Enters the mouth sweet, suave, and dense, showing utterly seamless, highly complex flavors of dark berries, underbrush, minerals and cedar. For a wine with such amazing depth of flavor, this comes across as almost weightless. Though it displays the upfront fruity charm of the 2009 vintage, this is a complex, rich monster that will prove extremely ageworthy. One of the wines of the vintage, and the best young Montrose I’ve yet tasted.
Wine Advocate 100
Hallelujah—what a glorious nose! The deep garnet colored 2009 Montrose features beautiful Black Forest cake, licorice, creme de cassis and warm blueberries scents with hints of charcoal, truffles, tapenade and menthol plus a waft of star anise. The palate is full-bodied, rich, super concentrated and yet superbly harmonious with a firm backbone of ripe, grainy tannins and wonderful freshness, finishing long and mineral laced.
Anticipated maturity: 2020-2065
James Suckling 100
Blueberries, currants and Indian spices on the nose follow through to a full body, with ultra-fine tannins and a lovely finish. It’s intense and refined. A beauty. It goes on for minutes. Speechless. Better and cleaner than the great 1990. Try in 2022.
Jeff Leve 100
Everything here is on fire! This is what great wine is all about. Incredibly concentrated, powerful, rich, deep, long, and complex. From the sniff, you should be hooked. But the real star of the show is on the palate, which is completely coated with layer after layer of perfectly ripe, opulently textured layers of black, red, and blue fruits that linger well past the 60-second mark! The seamless finish must be tasted to be believed. This is already just great to taste. But it is in the future where it will achieve its future legendary status.
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2060
Jeb Dunnuck 100
The 2009 Château Montrose is just pure perfection, and it doesn’t get any better. This magical Saint- Estèphe is still youthful yet offers incredible pleasure in its assorted black and red fruits as well as notes of smoked tobacco, licorice, graphite, and scorched earth. A wine that has always been open and satisfying since release, it’s still full-bodied and has a broad, expansive, velvety mouthfeel, gorgeous and still present tannins, and a great, great finish. It’s a richer, more expansive wine compared to the more focused, classic 2010. Unquestionably one of the finest wines in the vintage, as well as one of the legendary wines from this address, it should evolve for another 40-50 years, although don’t let that stop you from opening a bottle!
Anticipated maturity: 2023-2073
The Wine Independent 100
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2009 Montrose prances out with showy notes of blackcurrant preserves, blackberry pie, dark chocolate, anise, and violets with touches of menthol and fallen leaves. The medium to full-bodied is jam packed with impactful black fruit preserves, supported by firm, ripe, grainy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing with epic length and wonderfully fragrant.
Anticipated maturity: 2023-2060
