2009 Montrose, St-Estèphe 6-Pack in OWC (Pre-Arrival)
SKU #1301004
100 points
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. (WK)
(8/2022)
98 points
James Suckling
For the very ripe vintage this has a herbal and wet earth nose that's very cool. Then on the palate there’s a ton of ripe cassis, polished fine tannins and a tremendous freshness powering the very long dry finish. One of the stars of the vintage that's just beginning to enter its best form.
(3/2019)
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. (NM) 98+
(3/2019)
97 points
Decanter
A brilliant Montrose, and a great window into what St Estèphe can deliver. This is fresh and concentrated, with ripe cassis fruits, sweet vanilla bean and black pepper spice notes alongside robust tannins, 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Jean-Bernard Delmas was estate director for this wine, and is making the most of the complex soils that are gravel-dominant towards the river, with pockets of sand over clay and limestone where the Merlots tend to be planted. Starting to feel ready to drink, but is going nowhere in a hurry. (JA)
(10/2020)
97 points
Int'l Wine Cellar
Bright, deep ruby-red. Drop-dead gorgeous nose offers cassis, mineral and candied violet aromas of great depth. Enters the mouth sweet, suave, and dense, showing utterly seamless, highly complex flavors of dark berries, underbrush, minerals and cedar. For a wine with such amazing depth of flavor, this comes across as almost weightless. Though it displays the upfront fruity charm of the 2009 vintage, this is a complex, rich monster that will prove extremely ageworthy. One of the wines of the vintage, and the best young Montrose I've yet tasted. (ST)
(7/2012)
K&L Notes
100 points Robert Parker in Wine Advocate: "Harvested between September 17 and October 5, this wine seems always open for business, so to speak, much like the great 1982s. The summer of 2009 was very hot and dry, which got the harvest off to a reasonably early start. The blend was 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. Jean Bernard Delmas’ goal was to find perfect equilibrium between freshness and concentration, given its incredible opulence and the voluptuous character this vintage offered. That’s what this wine has in abundance. With an astounding dense purple color, the wine has velvety, sweet tannins, and an extremely open-knit and opulent blueberry, blackberry and creme de cassis nose. There is scorched earth, vanilla and, again, telltale licorice and spice. It is unctuously textured - thicker and juicier than the 2010 and more forward. This wine should come into its own in another five years. And again, it has at least 50+ years of aging potential." (08/2014) PLEASE NOTE: This product is 6 bottles in its Original Wooden Case (OWC), sold only as a 6-bottle case to protect ideal provenance. If the wines must be shipped, they will be sent in pulp shippers to protect the bottles, with the wood case shipped separately. Will call or local delivery orders can be handled as intact OWCs. Please detail any special handling requests at checkout online, or call us with specific instructions.