Château Montrose

The wines from St.-Estèphe tend towards richness and robustness with strong tannins, which guarantee a long maturation. Château Montrose consists of one large plot of 95 hectares around the château. The Melissa family, Martin and brother Olivier Bouygues are the owners, assisted by Hervé Berland (ex-Mouton Rothschild) as the ‘Managing Director’. The secret of Château Montrose lies largely in the ideal location and the associated terroir of the domain. The 110 different plots are located directly on the Gironde river, on a bulge of 18 meters with gravel and deep clay. This ensures ventilation in the vineyard and less ‘disease’ pressure for the vines and good drainage.

The vinification space has 92 separate stainless steel fermentation tanks, in order to treat plot by plot separately. There is even a study on ‘how to deal with press wine’, this to indicate how detailed they work here. The 2014 is a challenger for ‘wine of the year’ in Bordeaux. The wine is extremely lively, bursting with fruit and has an enormous structure. The core consists of 61% cabernet sauvignon, but the 8% cabernet franc gives the wine just the fresh and lively drive. A masterpiece…

With the 2016 Dame de Montrose the focus is on the beautiful fruit, formed by the core of merlot grapes (52%). Especially this year an even more precise selection of the grapes has been possible, partly due to an expansion of the 90-strong team of grape pickers.