Chateau Montrose 2eme Cru 2009 (12 Fl.)

Jeff Leve: Everything here is on fire! This is what great wine is all about. Incredibly concentrated, powerful, rich, deep, long, and complex. From the sniff, you should be hooked. But the real star of the show is on the palate, which is completely coated with layer after layer of perfectly ripe, opulently textured layers of black, red, and blue fruits that linger well past the 60-second mark! The seamless finish must be tasted to be believed. This is already just great to taste. But it is in the future where it will achieve its future legendary status. Drink from 2025-2060. 100/100 (2022)

Robert Parker: 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. 100/100 (2022)

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. This is normally a perfect wine but perhaps not a perfect bottle? Drink or hold. 98/100 (2019)

Falstaff: Tiefdunkles Rubingranat, tiefer Farbkern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Frische schwarze Beerenfrucht, reife Herzkirschen, ein Hauch von Mandarinenzesten, mineralischer Touch, einladendes Bukett. Saftig, elegant, angenehme Extraktsüße, feste, reife Tannine, sehr gute Frische, bleibt lange haften, mineralischer Nachhall, dunkle Beeren im Nachhall, sicheres Entwicklungspotenzial, Bitterschokofinale, schon sehr verführerisch, wird noch zulegen. Bereits antrinkbar, aber besser noch warten. 98/100 (2020)

Wine Enthusiast: Enormous tannins, dominant black fruit and a solid, dense structure. The wine, packed with dark fruits, dry tannins, very firm in character. With its huge tannins as well as fruit, this is a wine that really needs many years of aging. 96/100

Jancis Robinson: Deep crimson. Introvert with a very concentrated but convincing nose. Edgy and very St-Estèphe in character. Complex. Dry but not drying finish. 18/20

Vinum Wine Magazine: Mächtiger, dichter Wein mit herrlich reifer Textur, von grösster Rasse und unendlicher Länge: beeindruckend, gross. 18/20