Chateau Montrose - Saint-Estephe Red 2009

Grape

65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot

Tasting notes

The 2009 Château Montrose, a monumental Saint-Estèphe, is widely hailed as a benchmark for contemporary Montrose—a wine that masterfully marries the generosity of the vintage with the estate’s hallmark structure and precision.

The nose is deep and seductive, revealing layers of blackcurrant, blackberry, and dark chocolate, woven with aromas of cigar wrapper, violets, and loamy soil. On the palate, it is powerful and full-bodied, with firm yet polished tannins, excellent depth, and a long, mineral-laced finish.

This is a brilliant wine, offering both opulence and restraint, and a prime example of Saint-Estèphe at its most refined. Its harmony, concentration, and aging potential make it one of the standout wines of the vintage—and a must-have for collectors.

Expert Ratings

100 points James Suckling

Blueberries, currants and Indian spices on the nose follow through to a full body, with ultra-fine tannins and a lovely finish. It's intense and refined. A beauty. It goes on for minutes. Speechless. Better and cleaner than the great 1990. Try in 2022

100 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

A brilliant wine that stands out as one of the high points of the vintage, the 2009 Montrose unwinds in the glass with a rich and incipiently complex bouquet of dark berries, cigar wrapper and loamy soil, framed by a deftly judged touch of new oak. Full-bodied, broad and enveloping, it's a velvety, layered and impressively dynamic wine that's deep and concentrated, exhibiting terrific balance and a long, resonant finish. While it is still five or six years away from showing all its cards, I have drunk this benchmark for contemporary Montrose with immense pleasure three times this year. In style, it's hard to find an obvious comparison (and I have drunk Montrose back to 1895), but I would be inclined to invoke a fresher, more complete and more powerful version of the estate's very successful 2003.

98 points Decanter

The 2009 Montrose shows elegant, rich, well-placed fruit, full of generosity. It's silky and velvety in texture, with good freshness despite the exoticism of the fruit structure, with black pepper and garrigue edging. The tannins are still pretty biting and the acidity is higher than many in 2009. Settling in for the long haul, this is without doubt a Montrose that has form and future.

98 points Vinous

The 2009 Montrose has a taut, brilliantly defined bouquet with intense black fruit laced with crushed stone, forest floor, crushed rose petals and a touch of slate. Magnificent. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannin, good depth and grip, plenty of graphite locked in here with a bravura finish that indicates that this Saint-Estèphe is in for the long-haul. It may well deserve a higher score as it evolves in bottle. Everything you wish for in a Montrose.