Château Montrose 2009

Powerful, dense wine with a wonderfully ripe texture, of the highest pedigree and endless length: impressive, grand.

Harvested between September 17 and October 5, this wine seems always open for business, so to speak, much like the great 1982s. The summer of 2009 was very hot and dry, which got the harvest off to a reasonably early start. The blend was 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. Jean Bernard Delmas’ goal was to find perfect equilibrium between freshness and concentration, given its incredible opulence and the voluptuous character this vintage offered. That’s what this wine has in abundance. With an astounding dense purple color, the wine has velvety, sweet tannins, and an extremely open-knit and opulent blueberry, blackberry and creme de cassis nose. There is scorched earth, vanilla and, again, telltale licorice and spice. It is unctuously textured – thicker and juicier than the 2010 and more forward. This wine should come into its own in another five years. And again, it has at least 50+ years of aging potential.

A brilliant Montrose, and a great window into what Saint-Estèphe can deliver. This is fresh and concentrated, with ripe cassis fruit, sweet vanilla bean and black pepper spice notes alongside robust tannins; 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Jean-Bernard Delmas was estate director for this wine, and is making the most of the complex soils that are gravel-dominant towards the river, with pockets of sand over clay and limestone where the Merlots tend to be planted. Starting to feel ready to drink, but it’s going nowhere in a hurry.

For the very ripe vintage this has a herbal and wet earth nose that's very cool. Then on the palate there’s a ton of ripe cassis, polished fine tannins and a tremendous freshness powering the very long dry finish. One of the stars of the vintage that's just beginning to enter its best form. This is normally a perfect wine but perhaps not a perfect bottle? Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)

The 2009 Montrose remains a backward Leviathan Saint-Estèphe at ten-years of age, a wine that is clearly going to age over many decades. It has an intoxicating bouquet with blackberry, briary, crushed stone and rose petals that just gains more and more intensity with aeration without losing one iota of precision. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannin, adorned with an unerring sense of symmetry and precision. It just seems to lacquer the mouth with intense fruit and leaves a persistent wake of mineral drenched black fruit. Incredible. Tasted at the château.

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. Drink from 2025-2060.

Deep dark ruby garnet colour with a deep-coloured core, purple reflections, delicate brightening at the rim. Fresh dark berries, ripe heart cherries, a hint of mandarin zest, a mineral touch, inviting bouquet. Juicy, elegant, pleasant fruit sweetness, firm, ripe tannins, very good freshness, long persistence, mineral aftertaste, dark berries on the finish, certain ageing potential, bitter-chocolate finish, already very seductive, will continue to develop. Already accessible, but better to wait.

Opaque colour; the nose displays plenty of elegance and class, minerals, flowers, dark berries, blackcurrant and fine oak; impeccable structure on the palate, superb quality of tannin that contributes to structure and length, elegant dark fruit, layers of flavour and an enormously long aftertaste; highly potent and complex; a great wine; brilliant, almost perfect!

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!

72% selected for the Grand Vin. 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot. 38 hl/ha. Extremely dark purple with lilac and black-violet highlights. The bouquet boasts a regal, absolutely noble Cabernet, finest perfumed cassis, licorice and dark fine woods, Brazil-tobacco nuances over a truffly backdrop; I have rarely found so much freshness and such delicate mint on a dark-chocolate base in a Montrose barrel sample. The palate is thoroughly regal as well: aromatic cassis–blueberry extract, again with the same further aromas as on the nose—everything on the nose is transferred one-to-one onto the palate; good muscle that merges into a demanding yet balanced astringency. A great classic, no hint of modernity, but the maximum of what Montrose can do. Among the greatest Montrose ever produced—but not comparable to 1989 and 1990, which were all marked by heat. So perhaps the most perfect “new” Montrose ever. (20/20). Still closed, yet beneath the surface you feel plenty of black plums, black cherries, dried blueberries, pumpernickel bread, black tea and perfectly ripe Cabernet. On the palate compact, demanding; despite enormous tannin reserves, no masochistic astringency; the finish stays in the black spectrum of aromas. A legend! (20/20). 13: Incredibly dense, almost black, impenetrable core. Lots of spice, more spice than fruit at the moment; smoke, truffle, a hint of currants, mocha, dark fine woods, Havana cigar box; extremely profound, reminiscent not a little of its own 2003. On the palate monumental, clearly demanding astringency—not masochistic but insistent; the meaty tannins are wrapped in an initial creaminess, showing the exceptional class of its tannic structure; the finish is almost dramatic with an endlessly long aftertaste. In terms of greatness, perhaps best compared to 1989. But that one unfortunately seems improvised in terms of vinification. This 2009 is absolutely perfect in its craftsmanship. (20/20). 17: At a dinner, a friend brought this far too young Montrose. No matter. With such truly massive wines, it is extraordinarily interesting to follow their evolution. Already at the en primeur tasting I awarded this gigantic, legendary Montrose the maximum score. And it still deserves it today—and likely for the next 50 years! Then we’ll see… (20/20). 19: The color is almost like a barrel sample; black-violet. Although the nose is markedly closed, a beautiful Cabernet imprint enters the bouquet right from the start, profound, adorned with licorice and smoky components, fine woods, black berries. Baroque, with—for the 2009 vintage—a tremendous portion of classicism. Perfect palate entry, a sublime, seemingly endless finish. More Montrose than Saint-Estèphe. More Saint-Estèphe than 2009. Among the 2009s, one of the greatest wines. And among the greatest and best crus, one of the (still) most affordable, as there are still plenty of bottles under 300 francs. (20/20). 21: Rarely has an even far-too-young and so immensely great Montrose already been worth the sin in its youth! (20/20). 22: Dense purple with black reflections at the core. The nose is not yet fully open, but delivers a textbook measure of complexity. Sweet, rock-candy notes, licorice, dried fruits, cassis, black currant. Simply stunning and intoxicating. It already reveals its incredible depth. On the palate it continues seamlessly. A harmony-seeking, perfectly balanced wine with regal, promising, very ripe tannins. Absolutely perfect. It doesn’t get better! It has risen on the market by 10% within 12 months. Not a bad combination for a long-term investment of money and pleasure. (20/20).

Concentrated, complex, dark, velvety bouquet; black berries, cassis, fine dark precious woods, subtle roasted notes, currants, mint, delicate eucalyptus, truffle. Concentrated, multi-layered, finely concentrated, velvety palate with dense, dark fruit, plenty of fine tannins, a diverse, dark, sweet aromatic profile, concentrated structure, very long, dense, dark finish with plenty of lingering aromas. 20/20 drink - 2060

Cuts right to the heart of great St Estèphe, dark fleshy fruits, ambitious, just a touch of exuberance, but held back by bitter black chocolate, espresso, olive tapenade, eucalyptus, mint leaf, blackberry and damson fruits. Right up there showcasing what 2009 can offer. Jean Bernard Delmas was director at the time, and he is bringing some First Growth magic. Can be opened now with a long carafe, but is built to last.

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 palate 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.

Big blueberry nose, immense substance, showcasing all the power of this beautiful terroir in a great vintage, but the tannins will need to soften with long ageing.

Dense, compact, beautiful very fine tannins, long, racy, an impressive volume, superb finish.

Logo on the cork: A in a circle (Amorim) Dark, intense color with slight development. Intense nose with ripe fruit, silky and fresh. Soft on the attack, silky mid-palate, with flavors of dark fruit and licorice; the wine becomes supple, finishing with tannins still a touch present, even though it’s impossible to spit out.