Winemaker Notes
Blend: 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet colored, the 2010 Montrose opens with classic notions of warm blackcurrants, plum preserves, cedar chest and pencil shavings plus touches of menthol and underbrush. Full-bodied, concentrated and built like a brick house in the mouth, the densely packed, muscular black fruit is superbly supported by firm, ripe, grainy tannins, finishing with great length and depth.
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James Suckling
perfumed and pure Montrose, with lots of currants, berries and spices that evolve to chocolate and light coffee. Full body, with super racy tannins and bright and clean finish. Very fine and structured. A balance and freshness to it all as well as beautiful form and tension.
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Wine Spectator
Rock solid, displaying a dense core of plum, steeped currant and braised fig fruit, with racy charcoal and ganache notes. Intensely chalky, offering flesh and refinement to match the bracing minerality, this shows hints of grilled savory, iron, warm paving stone and bitter orange on the riveting finish. Should age very slowly. Best from 2019 through 2038.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is such an elegant wine that has all the structure of the vintage. Surrounding the tannins, the wine is sweet and ripe, with smokiness from the wood. It's powerful, elegant and sophisticated with a strong sense of poise. The tannins promise long-term aging. Cellar Selection.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
One of greatest kept secrets amongst the classifieds, the 2010 Ch Montrose is a wine destined to be one of all time greats; very concentrated and long, yet pure and un-compromised by the winemaking team. Plenty of power and thickness, yet refined in its red fruit and minerality. Look for this wine to rest well in the cellar and grow into an incredible wine for the dinner table. (Best Served: 2024-2040)
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Decanter
Elegant, quite reserved fruit, quite discreet now, will gain in length, but less exciting than 2009.
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.