La Dame de Montrose, St Estèphe, 2010
Montrose is a contender for wine of the vintage, producing a monumental, powerful, yet reserved and classical wine that will outlive most people over the legal drinking age... The second wine is also a wonderful example and is one of the top St Estephes in its own right. Dame represents 36% of the total production, a blend of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon and 36% Merlot. It is a more feminine expression of this terroir, but is still quite a big wine. Liquid mineral nose of gravel, pencil lead and earth. On the palate there is bright floral fruit, blackberries, griotte cherry, sap and spice. Classical, reserved and very refined with ample tannic extract.
critic reviews
You want a good value St Estèphe from a top name, ready to drink this Christmas, this is where to go - one of the best 2nd wines of the vintage. Tasted out of magnum, which made it more primary in its fruit structure than you will find in bottle, but either way this is still full of plump and opulent black cherry and cassis fruits. Still plenty of grip and life ahead, but so much pleasure to be found, and it's at its peak.
The 2010 Les Dames de Montrose has a very strange, very mousy nose that obscures all sense of fruit and terroir expression. The palate is simple and weak, the nose so off-putting that I had to wash out my mouth afterwards. This must be an errant bottle given several others that I have tasted in the past. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal.