2023 BORDEAUX WINE ENTHUSIASTS WILLIAM "STEFAN" JOHNSON WINE OF THE YEAR: 2019 CHATEAU MONTROSE

[JimHow]

2023 BORDEAUX WINE ENTHUSIASTS WILLIAM “STEFAN” JOHNSON WINE OF THE YEAR: 2019 CHATEAU MONTROSE

I reviewed the discussion about the proposed wine of the year. I think there were some good suggestions but I did not find any great consensus. I was tempted to go with the 2019 d’Issan, I was lucky to get like the only case in the New Hampshire system and have uncorked a couple of bottles. It is a beautiful wine. In any event, thank you to all who offered suggestions for this distinguished award.

I drank the 2019 Montrose early in 2022 and was absolutely blown away, giving it 100 points. I had it a second time and, while it was slightly more closed, was nonetheless a stunning 99+ points. Long overdue BWE recognition of Chateau Montrose is obviously not only appropriate in 2019. This is an estate that has attained great heights for several decades now, and this really is as much a lifetime achievement award as a recognition of the stunning 2019 vintage. Having said that, I do think the 2019 Bordeaux vintage itself deserves recognition, it seems to have an across-the-board consistency on both banks of the river that actually offers hope that we are officially past the era of Parker modernization.

This was my note when I tasted it for the first time back in January 2023:


100 Points
The 2019 Chateau Montrose is magnificent. It is a 100 point effort, in the heritage of those legendary 1989-1990 Montrose vintages, when it was battling with the likes of Haut Brion, La Mission, Lynch Bages, and numerous others as the greatest wine on the planet. Thirty-plus years later, Chateau Montrose may be the "greatest" wine on the planet. And I'm not just talking about the 2019 vintage. I'm willing to listen to anyone who can come up with a more stellar record of excellence in the past 23 years than Chateau Montrose, and I won't disagree with you, because this is all, in the end, completely subjective. There have been numerous superstars since 2000: Pichon Baron, Ducru Beaucaillou, Giscours, Leoville Barton, Calon Segur, and numerous others. Honestly, I can't think of an estate that has excelled more consistently than Chateau Montrose. Along with Pichon Baron, I ranked it at the top of my second growth classification of the 2022 Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts / Ian Amstad Reclassification of the Wines of Bordeaux. This 2019 Montrose is stunning. It smoothed out, as you would expect a great Bordeaux to do, over the course of a three hour dinner. The alcohol is 14.5%, but there is zero intrusion. When I drank the first sip or two or three I worried about the heat, but very quickly it was irrelevant. For the rest of the bottle the alcohol smoothed out, and was non-existent. It is defined by its balance: Stunning fresh Maine blueberries on the palate, velvety New England summer flowers on the nose. Not sure about the oak percentages, etc., but whatever the percentages are, they nailed it perfectly. The beauty of this wine is how it matches all the positives and negatives of modern winemaking with all of the greatness of the past. In the end, this is a "classically styled" St. Estephe. It is Bordeaux, circa 2023, at its best: The greatness of 1980s Bordeaux matched with modern winemaking excellence, a nod to past and present. Nice acidity, this wine will path along the obligatory "drink now and for the next 50 years." There will undoubtedly be a five year "awkward period," (3-5 years?, 5-7 years? I dunno, who cares), but drink this wine now (with a VERY hearty meal), or over the next 30-50 years. This wine is immense. It is a stunner. It rivals the greatest Montrose vintages ever, 1989-1990. This is a 100 point wine.

Edit: Note on the color.
In posturing that Montrose eclipse of my BWE lap top scene, AKR, I was attempting an AKR-like photographic capture of the true hue of this St. Estephe behemoth. There's a lot going on in that picture. There is the midnight black core, leading almost suddenly to the dawn of purple/ruby at the rim. If it were a Crayolla color, how would we describe it? "Montrose Purple?" Surely a color of nature that exists nowhere else In the solar system (I can't speak for the rest of the galaxy, let alone the universe), other than that plot of land in the northern Medoc, France, in this small sliver of time. How lucky we are! A picture says a thousand words. Stunning. Beautiful, magnificent. Like the planet Earth dawning into another day. In vino veritas.
++++

And so…. I hereby declare the 2019 Chateau Montrose as the recipient of the 2023 Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts William “Stefan” Johnson Wine of the Year Award. We welcome it into the pantheon of greatness that comprises our list of past wines of the year!

BWE WINE OF THE YEAR

2000: 1996 Sociando-Mallet
2001: 1989 Lynch-Bages
2002: 1995 d'Yquem
2003: 1999 Haut Brion Blanc
2004: 2000 Pichon Baron and 2000 du Tertre
2005: 2000 Margaux
2006: 2003 Pontet-Canet
2007: 2002 Leoville Poyferre
2008: 2005 Burgundy vintage (protest vote)
2009: 1989 Lafite Rothschild
2010: 2005 Cantemerle
2011: 2008 Leoville Poyferre
2012: 2009 Giscours
2013: 2004 Smith Haut Lafitte
2014: 2010 Chasse Spleen
2015: 2012 Leoville Las Cases
2016: 2012 Barde-Haut
2017: 2014 Calon Segur
2018: 2015 Brane Cantenac
2019: 2016 Tour Saint Christophe
2020: 2016 Leoville Barton and 2008 Dom Perignon
2021: 2014 La Conseillante
2022: 2016 Grand Puy Lacoste
2023: 2019 Montrose

[Nicklasss]

Very good choice.

Montrose is surely a wine that many BWEers love, and that has not turned to the dark side, staying a classic strong Saint Estèphe. The 2019 is already recognized as a great red wine from Bordeaux, one of the top in that vintage.

Personally, if I would have had to make the call, this would have been my choice too, Montrose has been a long time deserving a BWE WOTY choice.

Bravo!

[JimHow]

Happy new year, Nicola.
Looking forward to seeing you, Danny, Jean-Fred and your better halves in Montreal in a few weeks!

[ericp]

Great choice Jim, your earlier note had me on the hunt for a few bottles. This only escalates the need to grab some!

[DavidG]

Excellent choice Jim.
Happy New Year!

[JeanFred]

Looking forward to seeing you, Danny, Jean-Fred and your better halves in Montreal in a few weeks!

And what about me Jim!


I didn’t taste Montrose 2019 but great Wine and a good to great? Vintage. Good Choice!

Happy New year’s to all!

JeanFred

[stefan]

Thanks, BD. Just the excuse I needed to resume buying wine. I have nary a bottle of 2019 and should plan to get some for drinking when I am 100+.

[Comte Flaneur]

A logical and worthy choice Jim - reading your piece I would say - rightly - more about Ch. Montrose than the 2019 vintage - the 2016 and 2020 Montroses are epic wines too - though I would concede that it would be odd not to have a 2019 to win this prestigious accolade.

[PghMike]

2019 Montrose was a favorite this year for sure, probably my favorite of the 19s so far with Figeac, Les Carmes and Calon right up there.

[JimHow]

Drank one of my new 2019 Montrose that I bought yesterday, it was very disjointed, it has officially gone into hibernation stage. Hold off drinking it for at least five years.

[Nicklasss]

Drank one of my new 2019 Montrose that I bought yesterday, it was very disjointed, it has officially gone into hibernation stage. Hold off drinking it for at least five years.

2019 d'Issan was exactly the same, a bit dumb, on Christmas day.

[Comte Flaneur]

Drank one of my new 2019 Montrose that I bought yesterday, it was very disjointed, it has officially gone into hibernation stage. Hold off drinking it for at least five years.

I thought it was a bit like that when we tried it in March here in London.

I don’t think any of the 2019s showed particularly well that Saturday evening. That is I suspect why Montrose and Lynch did not come top of that group. D’Issan was the first 2019 I tried in the summer of 2020, a sample from the Chateau. I fell in love with it straight away. The one we tried from bottle in March 2023 was much more awkward. Not a good time to drink them. But I have no doubt all of those four wines will be great after a decade or two in bottle.