Chateau Montlandrie, Cotes de Castillon, 2020
Montlandrie is a new venture for Denis Durantou in 2009. If handed this blind you certainly wouldn't guess that it is a Castillon. Packed with ripe griotte cherries, notes of breakfast jam, sweet blackberries and tart fruit. The flavours are long and distinguished with a beautifully silky texture and fine grippy tannins.
critic reviews
The 2020 Montlandrie has an intense spearmint-scented bouquet that feels just a bit one-dimensional at the moment. Perhaps it is going through a dumb phase? The palate is medium-bodied with slightly rustic tannins, a bit dry and stolid toward the finish. I wonder if the fruit might fade before the tannins polymerize? I gave this a tentative reception before, and this seems to vindicate that it's not the best Montlandrie in recent years. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
The 2020 Montlandrie is a promising wine for aficionados who can keep it for a few years in the cellar. It has aromas of blackberries, iris, spring flowers, blackcurrant and blueberry, followed by a medium-bodied, concentrated and layered texture on the palate with a denser character than previous vintages. Its harmonious with a clean and precise finish.
The 2020 Montlandrie is a blend of 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it features powerful notes of crushed red and black currants, boysenberries, and garrigue, plus suggestions of fallen leaves, Sichuan pepper, and iron ore. The medium to full-bodied palate is taut with mouth-coating black fruit, supported by firm, grainy tannins, finishing with a refreshing lift.
Intense and concentrated, blueberry and blackberry fruits lifted by strands of saffron and oyster shell, austere on the finish, good stuff. 40% new oak, harvest September 18 to 25, 45hl/ha yield, 3.6ph. Noemie Durantou winemaker alongside Olivier Gautrat.