Chateau Montrose

At the end of the 18^th century the land that is now Chateau Montrose was nothing more than a moorland owned by the Segur family. In 1778 it was acquired by Etienne Theodore Dumoulin, who passed to his children in 1806. When his son Etienne Theodore (of the same name) took control, he was focused on a plot of land south of Calon and adjacent to the Gironde, which has potential as a vineyard.

Etienne Theodore then cleared the heather and scrub and planted vines on the gravelly soil in 1815, with good results, and subsequently expanded and also built a chateau in 1820. Later the vineyard was sold to Firmin de Lestapis, but Etienne Theodore retained part of it and renamed the estate Montrose and sold the wines as Montrose-Segur.

The name Montrose probably originated from mont-rose, the pink heather that covered the gravel croupe before it was cleared for the vineyard. Through purchase and exchange of vineyards with neighbors the property continued to expand, to 50 hectares by the time of the 1855 classification, where it was ranked as a deuxieme cru, or second growth in the classification.

When Etienne Theodore died in 1861, his adopted sons inherited the estate but later sold to Mathieu Dollfus. Mathieu was very interested in the estate and invested significantly to expand it to 65 hectares, and took good care of the employees in the vineyard, creating a community around Chateau Montrose.

He also built a small railway to transport the wines to the river in order to ship to Bordeaux, as well as a limited company to manage the estate, avoiding the division of the estate when it is passed on to the next generation. He was a real pioneer in the day.

Unfortunately his heir Charles Dollfus-Galline was not interested in the estate and later sold it to two brothers Jean-Justin and Jean-Jules Hostein, who also owned Cos d’Estournel. Jean-Jules soon acquired the whole ownership and then sold to his son-in-law Louis Victor Charmolue in 1896.

With phylloxera devastating the vineyard at the end of 19^th century, Louis Victor replanted the vines on American rootstock, keeping the quality and reputation until 1925, when it was passed onto his son Albe upon his death. However, there were some bad times and Albe had to sell part of the vineyards to stay solvent, and a fire in the cellar in 1932 destroyed a sizeable amount of stock. The estate was further damaged by some bombing during WWII.

When Albe died in 1944, the estate was passed to his widow Yvonne and later to his son Jean-Louis in 1960. Supported by his wife Anne-Marie, Jean-Louis invested in the vineyard, with new equipment, new barrel cellar, and introducing a second wine in 1983. The wine enjoyed some good reviews, particularly in the 2003 vintage.

The estate was sold again in 2006 to the brothers Martin and Olivier Bouygues, who expanded the estate to 95 hectares, acquiring land from neighboring Phelan-Segur. The brothers installed a geothermal pump, to heat up or cool down the buildings as required, with also solar power panels to generate its own electricity, as well as carrying out water conservation.

The brothers also brought Jean-Bernard Delmas, previous winemaker at Haut-Brion, to manage the chai. Jean-Bernard retired in 2011 and passed the role to Herve Berland, recently retired from Mouton-Rothschild as their general manager. The brothers now owned more than 100 hectares in St-Estephe overall, the largest property owner in the commune.

The vineyards are on the slope in the south-eastern corner of St-Estephe, with gravel soils, and some clay, sand and alluvial influences. The vines are 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, at a density of 9000 vines per hectare.

Manually harvest, with the pickers coming back every year from Andalusia, a tradition for more than 40 years. The picking is done on a plot-by-plot fashion, with basic triage in vineyard followed by sorting in the chai, before fermentation in stainless steel vats.

Pumping over is practiced several times a day, with pre-assemblage to blend new-born wines from the same variety of the same quality level prior to malolactic fermentation. Assemblage process follows after the tasting, with the blended wines going into 60% new oak, with the remaining one-year old, for 16-18 months. Racking is done every three months and the wine is fined with egg white before bottling

About 19000 cases are made for the grand vin, with a second wine La Dame de Montrose (in honor of Yvonne Charmolue) of about 9000 cases, which uses 15-20% new oak and a shorter elevage of 12 months.

I have recently tasted both the grand vin and second wine, at a fairly young vintage of 2002 and 2004. Below are my tasting notes:

Good quality St-Estephe of deep ruby color, this wine has reasonably intense nose of good complexity, showing developing aromas of blackberry, plum, meaty and farmyard, game, cedar and smoke, cloves, graphite. With good acidity, the tannin of the wine is fairly high but it has a smooth silky texture. The wine is fairly full-bodied and the palate has reasonable concentration of black cherry, plum, cedar, cinnamon, cream, and earth. With a fair finish, the wine is ready to drink now though it can benefit from further ageing of another 3-5 years.

Good quality St-Estephe, of medium ruby color, on the nose there are reasonably intense aromas of blackberry, dark plum, blueberry, cedar, tobacco, earth and leather, showing good complexity and developing characters. Medium in acidity, the tannin is however a bit too high and grippy, with fairly full-bodied and reasonable concentration of blackberry, dark plum, cedar, tobacco and cloves in flavors. A fair finish, the wine is overall too young and should be further cellared for another 2-3 years before opening.