Winemaker Notes
Dense and dark red. Very fruity, complex, discretely woody with beautiful strength. Round, spicy and fresh.
Blend: 50% Merlot, 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet colored, the 2010 Tronquoy-Lalande bursts from the glass with bold scents of baked plums, mulberries and crème de cassis plus suggestions of chocolate box, dried roses and fallen leaves. Full-bodied, the palate has a solid line of ripe, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness supporting the muscular fruit, finishing long and mineral-laced.
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Enthusiast
A rich, chocolaty wine, with the structure right up front. Under the same ownership as Château Montrose, this is a wine that reveals all its attractions early with sweet blackberry fruit and powerful tannins. There is some freshness as well, giving fruitiness and acidity at the end.
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James Suckling
Lots of blueberry and chocolate character. Coffee too indicating a good amount of new wood. Full and juicy.
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Wine Spectator
Features a firm charcoal frame, smoldering bay and tobacco notes and chewy, mulled currant, steeped fig and blackberry fruit flavors. A singed iron edge drives the taut finish. An old-school, minerally style.
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.