Chateau La Dame de Montrose 1996
Chateau La Dame de Montrose 1996, made to the same rigorous standards as the first wine, from grapes grown in the same vineyard, La Dame de Montrose is the estate’s second label. Supple and silky Merlot generally predominates in the varietal mix. Its very pronounced red fruit aromas and flavours reflect another expression of the terroir in a distinctive style which is less elaborately complex than that of the first wine.
Consistently reliable and reaching maturity sooner, the wine was created in 1983 in tribute to Yvonne Charmolue, who ran Château Montrose single-handedly from 1944 to 1960. Production varies from one year to another but accounts on average for 30% of the total production of the Montrose vineyard. It is matured for 12 months in 30% new oak barrels.
Chateau Montrose is known today for its powerful, full bodied Bordeaux wine. But that is not what the property was originally known for. In fact, before Bordeaux wine was produced at the estate, it earned fame for being a hunting area.
That all changed when Alexandre de Segur, who also owned numerous, other illustrious Bordeaux properties such as Chateau Mouton, Chateau Lafite and Chateau Latour, gave the property to his son, Nicolas Alexandre. At the time, the estate was known as La Lande de l’Escargeon. Alexandre did not keep the property long. In 1778, he sold it to Etienne Theodore Dumoulin.
Saint-Estèphe wines are powerful, concentrated and rich, with sometimes austere, gritty tannins in their youth, and hallmark notes of cassis, tobacco, cigar box and crushed stone.These full-bodied blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot can age extremely well.
Saint-Estèphe is situated in the northern end of Bordeaux’s Haut-Médoc, with grapes grown on gravel soils atop a clay base. The soils here have poor drainage, which delays ripening, and often results in wines with higher acidity than those from further south in the Médoc.
