Saint-Estèphe 1998

The 1998 Left Bank harvest is considered among the finest of its decade for the major Saint-Estèphe appellations, producing wines of genuine power, concentration and structured richness that have continued to develop with remarkable grace. Château Montrose’s 1998 earned 90/100 from Robert Parker, who called it a classic effort and noted with surprise that it was performing better than expected from bottle, and 91/100 from William Kelley of Wine Advocate, who found it an uncompromisingly old-school wine of sweet blackberry, loamy soil and cigar wrapper complexity with powdery tannins still asserting themselves on the finish. Montrose is one of the great estates of Saint-Estèphe, founded in 1815 by Théodore Dumoulin on land he cleared of pink heather, the mont rose from which the estate takes its name, classified Second Growth in 1855 at its very first classification, making it the youngest estate in that year’s listing. Both the 1998 and 1999 were produced under Jean-Louis Charmolüé, whose family had owned the estate since 1896. The estate was subsequently acquired by Martin and Olivier Bouygues in 2006. The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot.