Winemaker Notes
Well-integrated tannins and a certain spiciness are typical features of the blend, together with the trademark tobacco, resin, blackcurrant and licorice aromas which give the wine its distinctive personality.
Blend: 50% Merlot, 44% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is really complex and perfumed, with an extremely attractive bouquet of flowers and dark fruit, such as currants. Full-bodied with crushed stones and chewy tannins, yet there’s polish and sophistication to it. Serious bottle here. Try after 2025.
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Decanter
Savoury aspects to the nose here, black truffles and dark chocolate. Such a dark fruit profile - black plums, cherries, prunes, some fig, really majoring on the ripe black fruits with some treacle and coffee notes. Fine but grippy tannins also really take hold in the mouth producing quite a full style - dense and filling. An intersting, nuanced palate with just enough acidity to keep things fresh and balance the deep fruit profile. I like this style a lot.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As I wrote earlier this year, the 2019 Tronquoy-Lalande has turned out beautifully, and it continues to show very well, offering up inviting aromas of wild berries, spices, rose petals and cassis. Medium to full-bodied, layered and sensual, with lively acids, ripe tannins and a long, vibrant finish, it's reminiscent of a somewhat more sun-kissed and extroverted sibling of the terrific 2016 at this address.
Rating: 93+ -
Jeb Dunnuck
Always a slightly Merlot-heavy blend that includes lots of Cabernet Sauvignon as well as small amounts of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, the deep purple-hued 2019 Château Tronquoy-Lalande offers a powerful, medium to full-bodied, concentrated style that's going to reward cellaring. Giving up lots of red and black currant fruits as well as cedarwood, iron, and chocolaty aromatics, it has terrific overall balance, background oak, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's well worth seeking out and comes close to rivaling the 2018.
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Vinous
The 2019 Tronquoy-Lalande has a concentrated nose with quite intense black fruit, touches of boysenberry, a little richer than some of its peers. The palate is medium-bodied with a dense, powerful, almost burly entry, very saline in the mouth, yet I am seeking more precision and finesse on the finish. That may well develop with time. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting. - Neal Martin
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Wine Enthusiast
The wine is smooth with great black fruits and ripe tannins. It has structure that is buried in the ripeness of the wine. It will develop well, likely to be ready soon from 2025 and then rest at the same level of maturity.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and direct, with a core of plum and boysenberry notes backed by a hint of roasted apple wood. Features flashes of anise and warm earth throughout. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2030.
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.