Wine Ratings

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A candidate for a perfect score, the 2003 Montrose has been a superstar since the first time I tasted it in barrel. Showing no signs of weakening, it is an amazing wine from this fabulous terroir. It boasts a deep blue/purple color as well as a stunning perfume of blueberries, black currants, blackberries, licorice and camphor. Dense, full-bodied and rich with an unctuous texture, well-integrated, melted tannins, and a long, heady finish, this big, brawny, super-intense, gorgeous 2003 is just beginning to enter its plateau of full maturity. It should remain there for at least two decades.Robert Parker | 99 RP(Chateau Montrose) A prodigious beast of a wine that’s now starting to shed just a touch of its considerable baby fat, the 2003 Château Montrose is based on 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot. It shows the richness of the vintage with its ripe, opulent core of fruit, yet it freshens up noticeably with time in the glass, offering currants, mulberries, smoked tobacco, minty herbs, and licorice. Full-bodied, deep, and powerful on the palate, it still has classic Bordeaux focus and structure. It’s drinking brilliantly today with a decant and has another 20-30 years of prime drinking. (Drink between 2022-2052)Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDAfter the 2009, this is the most exciting Montrose ever made, with intense aromas and flavors of plums, blueberries, spices, tobacco and cedar. It’s full-bodied with extremely refined tannins but a dense, delicious palate. Better in 2016, but why wait?James Suckling | 97 JSGood medium-deep ruby-red. Superripe, roasted aromas of black raspberry, chocolate and licorice. Wonderfully dense, sweet and lush, with an early roundness rare for this wine. A monumental St. Estephe with almost confectionery sweetness. Wonderfully horizontal, palate-saturating wine with huge but thoroughly ripe, lush tannins. It’s hard to believe that a wine this rich and deep could be carrying just 13.2% alcohol. The only thing missing here is the floral topnote of 2005, but that’s a quibble in this baking-hot vintage, as Montrose’s cooler, water-retentive clay-rich soil handled the extreme heat and drought as well as any chateau in the Bordeaux region. The final blend is 63% cabernet sauvignon, 33% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot.Vinous Media | 96 VMThis is hard to distinguish as an ’03, as an austere, racy profile of charcoal, black currant and iron reigns. Taut and focused, with a sense of freshness from buried bay leaf and tobacco accents, this is set apart in the vintage by drive and cut. Still a bit tight. The insider’s wine in this vintage.—Blind ’01/’03/’05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 15,830 cases made. — JMWine Spectator | 95 WSThought by many tasters to be the wine of the vintage at the time of the 2004 barrel tastings. Has it retained that status? It is certainly a hugely powerful wine, monumental even. It is also finely balanced, with great dark tannins working in partnership with brooding black fruit. The question is whether it is too big, too powerful: only time will tell. Imported by Diageo Chateau & Estates.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEA year when those cooling breezes from the estuary were essential. This displays sweeter, spicier fruit character than some years, and you can feel a more exotic style of oak. You get caramel and toffee on the nose with some dark spice on the palate, but there is a seam of menthol freshness running through it and the tannins are more than holding on. This shows the quality of Montrose in spades. 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot. Drinking Window 2017 - 2035Decanter | 92 DEC

A massive Yquem, this has a dense palate that is almost chewy like a red. Full and very sweet, with notes of dried apricot, pineapple, and papaya on the palate. Long, with a vanilla-coconut tart finish. What a wine, voluptuous, sexy, and luscious. 147 grams of RS. Pull the cork after 2015.James Suckling | 98 JSSquarely on the tropical side of the spectrum, with mango, papaya and pineapple fruit laced with a marmalade note. Long and very caressing through the finish, but never heady or overpowering, as orange pâte de fruit, ginger and singed almond accents lend cut and precision. Shows the heat of the vintage while retaining energy and drive. Impressive.—Non-blind Yquem vertical (July 2014). Drink now through 2040.Wine Spectator | 97 WSThe average June temperature for 2003 was the warmest ever recorded at Yquem since they installed their first weather station in 1896. And things were only just starting to heat up. This notoriously hot vintage nonetheless produced some very pleasant Bordeaux surprises, Yquem being one. As readers can guess, obtaining the necessary sugar levels was not the problem this year. If it was a question of sugar alone, berries could well have been harvested in August. But come September, the wait was on for the botrytis. Fortunately, a little rain beginning on the 5th of September kick-started proceedings, and with the help of continued warm temperatures, the noble rot took off like a rocket! After this, frenetic harvesting and strict selection ensued. Harvest was over in a record nine days, resulting in a super rich, concentrated and full botrytized expression that beautifully does justice to both the vintage and to Yquem.Medium lemon-gold colored, the 2003 d’Yquem seems to be emerging from a slumber, awakening with gloriously expressive notes of ginger ale, pineapple upside-down cake, toasted hazelnuts, star anise, cinnamon stick and preserved mandarin peel plus hints of lemon butter, crushed rocks, musk perfume and chalk dust. Full-bodied, super concentrated and decadently unctuous, the palate exudes waves of preserved tropical fruits and citrus sparks charged with energetic freshness, finishing epically long and wonderfully spicy. Alcohol is 13.5% this year, while the residual sugar comes in at a whopping 147 grams per liter, nicely balanced by a total acidity of 4.2 grams per liter H2SO4.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 96 RPThe 2003 Yquem was a homogenous harvest picked over a single trie between 17 and 26 September. It has a rich and opulent nose, crème brûlée, marmalade and a melted candle wax aroma. The palate has more to offer than the nose: fine acidity, less closed than the aromatics, touches of orange rind and mandarin developing with time. This is very commendable given that I do not consider it a great Sauternes vintage. Tasted from ex-château bottle in London.Vinous Media | 93 VM

No written review provided. | 99 RPDoesn’t give much on the nose, with subtle lemon, honey, tangerine and apricot. Full-bodied and very sweet, with a long finish. Thick and compacted, with loads of mango and sweet candied fruit. Best after 2010. 150 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WS