2005 Chateau Montrose Saint Estephe

2005 Chateau Montrose Saint Estephe

NAILED IT
I was tested by a friend last night. I outperformed by calling both the vintage and the label correctly. I really have to give myself a praise :)
First off; highly concentrated tea leaves, leaving me zooming in on St Estephe. Not calling Cos nor Calon Segur as they each have their own character of varying amount of tea leaves. Next obvious character is the classic backward style, not many winemakers bothered but Montrose is very traditional. Last, the distinct big tannins tell me it’s 05 or 10.

12 Jan 2017
GLACIER
I've drank many Bordeaux 2005 wines, most are actually ready to drink at this stage until I hit on this Montrose, which is truly moving at a glacier speed.
I decanted the whole bottle for an hour, and drink it over a span of 3 hours, unfortunately the evolution was so slow that I only detected very minor changes throughout. Started off with a very light nose (mainly pinewood or from the oak) and palate, it moved on to slightly ripe red fruits thereafter. I think this wine should outlive for 50years.

29 Apr 2015
SIMPLE MONTROSE
I heard Parker was about to award this wine as a 100 points (I maybe wrong), but I need to be totally disagree with Parker. Drinking next to the Leoville Las Cases Saint Julien 2005, this one pales... A simple wine which lacks structure and complexity. Although made very typical of St Estephe style of dark tea leaves, was just way too simple to even get anywhere close to 92 93, not to mention a perfect score. I reserve my opinion here objectively, not that I am a contrarian of Parker.

13 Jan 2015
Again many people underestimated the potential of this wine. Nose was big, dark fruits, fresh fruits like supermarket fruits department. Palette has thus matured and forward style, extremely refined, but again another shy fruits hidden behind the curtain. I can see how this shy fruits blossom into intense fruits, perhaps in 2 3 decades time. So, please stop drinking all these young stuff!