CHÂTEAU TROPLONG MONDOT

This is a very linear red and layered at the same time, showing blackberry, blueberry, black-truffle, bark and stone character. Chalk and minerality, too. It’s full-bodied and well framed with gorgeous intensity and freshness. Muscular with wonderful structure and brightness. Salty and savory notes on the finish. Try after 2024. Rating: 98 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Feb 2021)

Deeper colored, the 2018 Troplong Mondot is a blend of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2% Cabernet Franc brought up in 60% new French oak. Its vivid purple color is followed by a beautiful perfume of black raspberries, cassis, crushed flowers, and beautiful earthy minerality. Medium to full-bodied, ultra-pure, balanced on the palate, it has a beautiful chalky minerality on the finish. While the style has changed dramatically with the arrival of Aymeric de Gironde, the quality is nevertheless world-class. Rating: 94-96 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (May 2019)

Glowing purple rim with black core, so glossy. Colour stands out for its incredible brightness – technical director (since Sept 2017) Aymeric de Gironde says this is to do with low sulphur additions. Darker fruited and still a touch floral on the nose. Some stony/mineral notes. Very fine texture, really pure black fruit, chalky (limestone-derived) texture. Great finesse and juicy freshness. Intense fruit but full of energy and brightness. Tight, so much tension from that early harvest even though the fruit is perfectly ripe. Dry finesse and fresh persistence. I think you could enjoy this younger than many wines in this vintage. Drinking range: 2023 - 2038 Rating: 17.5 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2019)

The 2018 Troplong Mondot is blended of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc, with 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.56. Deep garnet-purple in color, it begins slowly with bold, bright black raspberries, ripe black plums, fresh blackberries and Morello cherries notes, giving way to underlying scents of tobacco, wild sage, Sichuan pepper, black olives, truffles and Marmite toast with hints of crushed stones and iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, the palate offers wonderfully fresh, energetic black fruit with a downright racy line of freshness (uncommon for this vintage) and firm, rounded tannins, finishing long with lots of mineral, earth and dried herbs layers giving beautiful electric sparks. Rating: 93-95 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (Apr 2019)

The focus to this wine sets a new standard for Troplong Mondot with density and minerality that I have not encountered for decades. Lots of slate and white-pepper character. Tight and very dense. Full body. Balanced. Wild mineral character and freshness here. Precise. Rating: 97-98 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2019)

One of the stories of the 2018 vintage in Bordeaux was Troplong Mondot bringing in its first grapes on 7 September. Proof, many suggested, of director Aymeric de Gironde going too far in his quest to rewrite Troplong's powerful style. It certainly made me excited to try this wine, and I hope the sceptics were too, because this is a brilliant Troplong. Oh, and although around 80% of the grapes did come in during those first 10 days, the final harvest date was 10 October. There's clear depth just in the colour alone, and impressive complexity on the nose. There's still a whole lot of Troplong strength and concentration here, you can't get away from that with these clay and flint over limestone soils, but now it is softer, with more minerality. The relatively high alcohols are apparent in the texture but not as heat. I love the persistency here, as it drags things out in the most delicious of ways, with a slate and white pepper finish. Of the new vineyards bought (4ha from Clos Labarde and 6ha from Bellisle Mondotte), everything is in Troplong Mondot this year. The officials will probably ask for some sections to be included in Troplong in the next classification in 2022. 3.56pH. Thomas Duclos consults. Drinking range: 2027 - 2042 Rating: 97 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2019)

This is 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc. A very pretty style, fresh, aromatic, gently perfumed, with scents of grilled red cherry, and touches of black violet and plum cream. A very elegant style, lifted and fresh, and dancing nicely across the palate. It feels very supple and svelte, a style which is reined back from the excesses it displayed maybe ten years ago, a clear indicator of new management here. There is a lush texture to the middle, with a light grain, fresh and vivacious, and it comes wrapped in velvety and tightly knit tannins, which encircle the delightfully vivacious fruit. An impressive style, ripe, svelte and firmly tannic in the finish, with a fine limestone grip here too. A complete turnaround from the Troplong-Mondot of old. Rating: 95-97 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2019)

The tannins are beautifully integrated into this velvet-textured wine. It has density and richness allied to concentration. At the same time, it has kept wonderful freshness and acidity to give it fine lift. The aging potential is obvious. Rating: 96 Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast www.winemag.com (Apr 2019)