A new benchmark for Montrose. Extremely aromatic and beautiful, with lavender, violets, pencil shavings and black currants on the nose. Complex and medium-bodied. The muscular structure and intensity are something else. The purity of fruit is dreamy. Marks a new era for Montrose. It is now made from only 45 hectares of vineyards right in front of the chateau instead of about 60 hectares before. From organically grown grapes. 75% cabernet sauvignon, 21% merlot and 4% cabernet franc. Best after 2030. James Suckling Senior Editor

One of the wines of the vintage, the 2023 Château Montrose sports a vivid purple hue as well as awesome aromatics of crème de cassis, fresh blackcurrants, graphite, crushed stone, tobacco, and violets. It's medium to full-bodied and has a concentrated, layered, seamless mouthfeel, flawless balance, fine polished tannins, and a blockbuster of a finish. Based on 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc and aged 18 months in 60% new French oak, it stays in the more aristocratic style of the vintage and is an utterly sensational, deep, multi-dimensional Montrose. It's one for the ages, yet I suspect it will be approachable within a reasonable time frame as well. Drink 2030-2078.

Simply off the hook in every sense of the word, this is what great wine is all about. For those that crave more details, in the aromatics, with little effort you find smoke, mint, licorice, exotic spices, flowers, crushed rocks, black raspberry, blackberries and currants On the show-stopping palate, there is a gorgeous sense of purity, as well as power, balanced with lift, and elegance. The wine is long, complex, and refined. The wine is intense and refined, with a lingering, expansive finish that hits the 60 second mark and keeps on going as it builds and escalates. The wine is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2030-2065. Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/search-wine-tasting-notes/?szSearch=2023%20Ch%C3%A2teau%20Montrose

(WA 97-100 points) The 2023 Montrose is another brilliant wine from an estate that's now routinely among Bordeaux's very best, year in, year out. A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc, derived exclusively from the estate's historic core on the fourth terrace situated just in front of the château itself, it unwinds in the glass with aromas of cassis and wild berries mingled with notions of lilac, violet and pencil shavings. Full-bodied, deep and layered, with a textural attack that segues into a dense, multidimensional mid-palate framed by beautifully ripe tannins and lively acids, it concludes with a long, resonant finish. It will be worth a special effort to seek out. - William Kelley

(TWI 97-99 points) Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2023 Montrose gallops out of the glass with intense scents of crushed blackcurrants, fresh blackberries, and raspberries along with nuances of licorice, crushed rocks, and mossy tree bark plus a hint of iron ore. The medium-bodied palate has impressive tension and tight-knit black and red berry flavors intertwined with mineral accents, framed by fine-grained tannins, finishing long and sparkly. The first wine accounted for only 35% of the estate's production this year. The blend is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc, with pH 3.70. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

So floral and aromatic, really inviting and welcoming on the nose, more aromatic than some. Smooth and intense, clearly concentrated but supple and bouncy, there’s movement to this, it’s not strict. So precise, and finessed, you can feel the edges of the fine tannins - well executed with a mineral grip underneath. You can tell there’s power here, it has muscles but sinew also. Quite demonstrative really - it’s flexing but keeps such a clear line of focus and cool blue fruit with graphite and liquorice too. Round and penetrating with an excellent weight and balance of acidity in the mouth while keeping harmony alongside a hint of sweet and just-ripe strawberries mostly with crunchy cranberry too. A lot to like here. Great effort, classy and comfortable - multi-faceted while still being so juicy and approachable. 60% new oak, ageing in barrels only for 18 months. 3.7pH. 13.6% press wine (300 barrels of press split into seven qualities). 35% grand vin in total, mainly from the old vines which is 45% of the vineyard but 35% of the crop. 48hl/ha yield.

Gorgeously dark and vibrant fruit, with gunsmoke and campfire, concentrated cassis and blackberry pastille, grilled almond, saffron and pomegrante, luscious but measured, showing the inky character that seems to be at the heart of the best Cabernets of this vintage, with their ripe but not overly exuberant classicism. Organic conversion, to be certified 2025. The first vintage this 1st wine of Montrose is coming only from the section of the vineyard located on Terrace 4 of the Médoc gravel banks that line the Garonne river along the peninsula. Following soil studies from Pierre Becheler, this comprises 35% of the overall production in 2023, or 45ha of vines, and is the historic heart of the property. Pierre Grafeuille director, Vincent Decup technical director.

The 2023 Montrose was one of my favourite wines from barrel. Now in bottle since July, this fulfils its promise with an intense nose of blackberry, violet and mint, giving it a subtle Pauillac-like allure. The fruit is incredibly pure here. The palate is medium-bodied with chiselled, pliant tannins that lend this Montrose a little more fluidity than I estimated from barrel. Very harmonious, really poised and long, this remains one of the finest Left Bank 2023s. - By Neal Martin on February 2026