Title Ch Montrose 2000~1955
Author: Linden Wilkie
Venue: I.O.D. building, 116 Pall Mall, London SW7
Date article was added: 27/03/05
Date of event September 28, 2004
Tasting in the midst of unprecedented Montrose fever.
This St.-Julien 2nd growth has never really been part of the ‘flash set’ of top Bordeaux wines in the way Château Pichon-Lalande, Palmer of Lynch Bages have been of late. So it was perhaps rather timely to conduct this tasting at the tail end of a rather feverish ’03 en primeur campaign in which Ch Montrose was one of the ‘must have’ buys. So much so that as we sat down to taste, the price had reached £1000 a case in bond – more than 2½ times the opening offer.
The long wait
Ironically, as this tasting bore out, big, powerful strapping Montrose in the concentrated ripe years, takes decades to reach full maturity. Taking aside the late-70s to mid-80s period when Montrose lost its way somewhat and was producing uncharacteristically light wines, the mammoth 1964 is still chugging along rather youthfully, and the 1961 still has formidable tannin.
In this tasting, it was when we reached the 1955 that saw what this wine is all about once cellared. Although probably at its best 5 to 10 years ago, the 1955 is a truly beautiful glass of wine today.
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1990 v 1989
It was also intriguing to see the 1990 and 1989 side by side. The former has such a reputation that it is now 2½ times the price of the latter. To my mind the 1989 is more classic, and of an extremely high quality. Indeed, it offers good value at this level. The 1990 on the other hand has quite peculiar nose, which partially blows off. It has a more conventional, and exquisitely balanced palate – seemingly drinkable now but with no “drink soon” horizon in sight.
The fun of fine wine discoveries.
Buying the 1990 Ch Montrose is a no-brainer in terms of quality – but you must pay for it. Likewise the 2003. One of the wines that attracted me to do this tasting was the 1964. At the time I planned this tasting I was thumbing through Robert Parker’s Bordeaux, 3rd Edn. He had last tasted the wine in 1997 and gave it a drinking window of 2000-2020 (!!!). This I had to taste. Here was a vintage not all that successful for many Left Bank château, caught out with grapes still to pick when the deluge came. For the likes of such big names as Chx Lafite-Rothschild, Margaux, and Mouton-Rothschild, this was only just shy of disaster. Montrose picked all their grapes before the rains, and produced the sleeper of the vintage.
Although fairly expensive from brokers’ lists, this can still be picked up at auction for around £50 a bottle – especially if you don’t mind English-bottled examples. Indeed, these can sometimes be better than the châteaux-bottled varieties.
And so we had an excellent example of this wine, and it surprised a few people. It was the most popular choice for wine of the night, followed closely by the 1955. Surprisingly (for me) the 1982 came 3rd (I thought it a little light and, perhaps, superficial). Even more surprisingly, the 1990 only got 1 vote for wine of the night (mine!).
The 1955 delighted most people. It had such a lovely fragrance and (finally) had real delicacy. It did, however, start to crack up after half an hour of so in the glass. If you have some well-stored bottles in your cellar, you are in for a treat – but don’t decant in advance.
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