Chateau Montrose La Dame de Montrose 2017
-
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker - Decanter
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 49% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Very pure and attractive red cherries, plums and wild herbs on the nose here. Impressive polish and poise on the palate. The cabernet fits really beautifully into the merlot, delivering cassis, ripe red plums and spiced mulberries. A blend of 49% merlot, 43% cabernet sauvignon, 4% cabernet franc and 4% petit verdot. Second wine of Château Montrose. Drink or hold. Better after 2022.
-
Wine Enthusiast
The second wine of Montrose shows tannins and great freshness from the black-currant flavors and succulent acidity. Drink from 2022
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The second wine of the estate, the 2017 La Dame Montrose checks in as a blend of 49% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It’s one of the top second wines out there and would easily pass for most estates’ top cuvee. Terrific notes of creme de cassis, crushed flowers, graphite, and plenty of Montrose minerality and earthy notes all emerge from the glass, and it’s medium to full-bodied, has polished tannins, and a great finish. It tastes like a mini-Montrose and will evolve for 15 years or more.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 La Dame de Montrose is a blend of 49% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot, aged in 30% new and 70% one-year old barrels for 12 months. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it leaps from the glass with warm red currants, black cherries and black raspberry scents, followed by earthy/underbrush notions plus hints of violets, dark chocolate and pencil lead. Medium to full-bodied and firm, with loads of mouth-coating juicy fruit, it has a velvety texture and long, mineral-laced finish. It should be approachable pretty much from the get-go, although don't let its precociousness make you underestimate its aging potential. Nicely done!
-
Decanter
A good year for Dame de Montrose, showing extremely well balanced plum and damson fruits, and a lovely texture. There was no frost here, as you would expect from a vineyard so close to the Garonne river. Harvest took place between 12-29 September. 4% Cabernet Franc makes up the blend given here. The cellar is now equipped with over 90 small-sized vats, and this is matured in 30% new oak. 40% of production.
Barrel Sample
Other Vintages
2021-
James
Suckling - Vinous
-
Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
-
James
Suckling - Vinous
- Decanter
-
Wine
Spectator
- Decanter
-
Wine
Spectator -
Jeb
Dunnuck
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling - Decanter
-
Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
-
Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast - Decanter
-
Robert
Parker
-
Wine
Enthusiast - Decanter
-
Jeb
Dunnuck
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator - Decanter
-
Jeb
Dunnuck
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling
-
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling
-
Wine
Spectator
-
Robert
Parker
An extensive renovation program with very strict environmental objectives has been carried out at the estate since it was acquired by Martin and Olivier Bouygues in 2006, reflecting the new owners’ determination to perpetuate the quality of the wine and make Chateau Montrose a model of skilled winemaking and sustainable development.
Under the direction of Hervé Berland since 2012, the estate has 68 employees in the vineyard and winery, all of whom share the same philosophy: respect for the terroir and a constant quest for excellence. That philosophy is manifested in meticulous vineyard practices, very precise parcel selection and use of only the best grapes to make the premium wine, Chateau Montrose.
The other qualities are used to make the second wine, La Dame de Montrose, and the third wine, Le Saint-Estèphe de Montrose.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.