La Dame de Montrose 2025

Incredible colour in the glass, bright pink-purple rim. Wild blue and black bramble berries with a salty tangy aspect on the nose – fresh and fragrant. Cool too. Smooth and shiny, this is sleek, really lively and upfront with such a juicy, fresh core. Quite lightly presented – definitely fine, delicate and refined with a soft edge of liquorice and clove. Really quite a hands-off style but there’s power surging through without the muscle. Quite impressive. 3.5pH. 76 IPT. 8% press. Ageing 12 months: 15% new oak, 20% foudre, 5% amphoras and the rest one-year-old barrels. 3% Cabernet Franc completes the blend.

Blackberries, black cherries, tobacco, forest leaves, flowers, and burning wood aromas shoot from the perfume. On the palate, the wine pops with its blend of round-textured black and dark red pit fruits, orange rind, and spice. The finish leaves you with more of those sweet fruits with additional touches of chocolate, and spice, providing more complexity, and softer, rounder textures. This will offer delicious drinking with just a year or two of bottle age. The wine blends 82% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, and 3% Cabernet Franc. 13.7% ABV. Drink from 2028-2044. 92-94 Pts

Mouthwatering finish, plenty of slate character, pumice stone, rose bud, iris flowers, ripe but not overripe, clearly this is juicy with some bright fruits, but creamy underneath - a world away from the kind of exuberant 2022 vintage, so take your pick on which style you prefer. August 29 began harvesting the reds for the first time (in 2022 it was September 2), then continued until September 20 so almost one month harvest. Terrace 3 and young plants saw reduced canopy height to manage water stress, but on Terrace 4 (the main estate wine) they were able to work as normal. 30hl/ha yield. 15% new oak, 5% amphora. Lower new oak than usual so slightly shorter ageing is expected. Looking forward to tasting the new Terrace 3 wine which now sits in between La Dame and the main wine, not released En Primeur.

Fine and precise, Montrose’s bouquet immediately signals ambitions that clearly go beyond the boxes it’s too often put into—those of a “second string” wine or a supporting role—when it has long since developed an identity of its own! The aromatic harmony lays the groundwork with serenity. Nuances of fresh dark berries paired with garrigue and aromatic herbs say a lot about the care devoted to mastering ripeness. Notes of black pepper and eucalyptus, for their part, champion both complexity and freshness. The attack stands out for its ultra-HD definition! The tannins—muscular and compact—have real texture and deliver perfectly controlled energy, supported by incisive acidity that quite literally invigorates the whole palate. A tailor-made wine: deep, elegant, and harmonious. It impresses with the calm assurance with which it reveals its power, behaving like a great wine… and it is one! I think it should be elevated to the status of Montrose’s “Grande Dame”.

Deep, intense, beautiful dark red color. Very aromatic nose, refined, fruity, ripe and subtle. Juicy on the attack, flavorful through the mid-palate, very aromatic with a raspberry nuance; the wine carries through to a juicy, long, even noble finish. Overall, very hard to spit out. Blend: 82% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc. Alcohol: 13.7% - pH: 3.5.