The 2020 Château Montrose was not sampled widely outside of France, so the principal reference here is fromJane Anson, who awards it 98 points, describing it as "a great Montrose" and interestingly making comparisons with 1986, 2016 and 2010. This is promising, given that 2016 Montrose scored 99 points in bottle and the 2010 scores 100 points.
Dame de Montrose is rightly one of the most popular second wines, wonderfully accessible in most vintages with its high Merlot content, but with a strong connection to the grand vin...great value at just £349 per dozen.
Château Montrose is a Deuxième Cru Classé estate in the commune of Saint-Estèphe. In the 18th century, the land at Montrose was primarily used for hunting. The origin of the name is uncertain but one story is that the pinkish heather which grew here earned it the name 'Mont Rose'. In the early nineteenth century the land part of the Calon-Ségur estate. It was first planted fully with vines in 1815, by Etienne Théodore Dumoulin.
The 95 hectares of vines are on a single plot of gravel and sandy soils over clay. Positioned close to the Gironde estuary, the vineyards benefit from the thermo-regulation effect of the river, often avoiding frosts when other estates are affected. The vines are divided into over 80 small plots, some just a few metres, with micro-vinification used to treat each plot uniquely.
The estate is owned by the Bouygues family (Martin and Olivier Bouygues own a construction and communications empire in France which includes TV channel TF1). Melissa Bouygues is CEO at Montrose and the family also own Château Tronquoy Lalande, along with Clos Rougeard in Saumur and a share in Domaine Henri Rebourseau in the Côte de Nuits. The second wine of the estate is Dame de Montrose.