2012 Bordeaux – Montrose, Clinet, Domaine de Chevalier, Rouget, Clos l’Eglise

by Charles Lea

2012 Bordeaux – Montrose, Clinet, Domaine de Chevalier, Rouget, Clos l’Eglise

Château Montrose is on a real roll at the moment, and while the 2012 wine is not quite up to the (Parker 100 point) 2009 (currently £2500+, nor the 2010 (£1600+), it is a great Montrose, and as Robert Parker says ‘one of the top successes of the vintage’. Yes one would like it to be cheaper yet, but that’s true of London houses too. Château Tronquoy Lalande, also made by this team, is another strikingly good wine, as of course is Montrose’s second wine Dame de Montrose.

The Winemaking team at Montrose

The team at Montrose and Tronquoy Lalande –
Lorraine Watrin, Laurent Savovitch-Vuk, Yves Delsol.

Olivier Bernard, owner of Domaine de Chevalier, is also president of the Union des Grands Crus, and he has caused some anger this morning amongst Bordeaux negociants by not showing a lead by reducing his prices at all this year. That said, the wines at this property have never been better, and relative to the quality of the wines here (and the scarcity of the white, of which only 1500 cases are made), these are not expensive compared to their peers. Both red and white come highly recommended – if you want the white get your skates on! Robert Parker calls the red “One of the stars of the vintage”.

Over in Pomerol (the most successful bit of Bordeaux in 2012) there have been two releases this morning, Château Rouget is a very sensibly-priced wine from a property on the up. Parker 90-93 and really I tasted this very well too – you can’t regret having this in your cellar.

I did not make it to Château Clinet this year, but others in the group I was with did, and reported a top-notch effort. See Tim Atkin’s note (as usual click the wine name to see the detail page). I did not taste Clos l’Église either, it seems to be a wine that has broadly divided critics depending on which side of the Atlantic they come from, which may say something about the style.