Troplong Mondot 2019

A brilliant vintage at Troplong, displaying an enticing blend of power and restraint, or rather measured extraction and controlled power. This was a warm year with leisurely ripening where you could go all out, but here the team has captured the natural freshness of limestone, and it tiptoes rather than storms across the palate. It is huge, with ripe damson and black cherry flavours, cut through with slate, sage and bitter black chocolate, all nuanced and characterful and just a wonderful poem to the stunning soils and potential of Troplong. For me it is the best of the flight. Improving from when I tasted it in bottle - and even then I was hugely impressed. 65% new oak, and 35% one year old barrels, with trials on amphoras and with larger 70hl oak casks. Harvest September 11 to October 5. Vibrant violet in colour, just excellent. 60% new oak, Thomas Duclos consultant.

Tasted blind. Rich, sweet nose and then some freshness and polished tannins. Quite a bit of alcohol. Not cohesive at present. Blackberry fruit flavours. 15%Drink 2027– 2042

The Grand Vin 2019 Château Troplong Mondot checks in as 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc, brought up in a mix of new and used barrels. Its deep ruby/purple hue is followed by a pretty perfume of redcurrants, black cherries, spring flowers, damp earth, and candied violets. While harvested incredibly early, it pulls it off and is ripe, textured, and balanced, although it doesn't have the density or mid-palate of the top wines in the vintage. This elegant, complex, medium to full-bodied Saint-Emilion is going to hit maturity in 7-8 years and have 20+ years of prime drinking.

Tightly tucked fruit on the nose. There's plenty of youthful candied berries on the palate, and remarkably soft tannins for such a youngster. Aromatic oak spice, incredibly moreish right now – this is charm itself to drink, despite the compressed nose. A really very impressive specimen. (RH) Drink 2026-2046.

The 2019 Troplong-Mondot, which was the first vintage without any malo in barrel, has a beautifully defined bouquet of blackberry, cranberry, touches of graphite and cedar aromas that gain intensity with aeration. The oak here is very well integrated. The palate is medium-bodied, elegant and poised, with silky-smooth tannins and a complex, black-pepper- and allspice-tinged finish. Caressing in the mouth, delivering extremely well integrated oak and a classically styled, minerally finish. Superb. 2025 - 2050

The 2019 Troplong Mondot needs an hour or two to settle and coalesce in the glass. As has been well documented, this is a reconfigured "TM" compared to those a decade ago - less flamboyant and ostentatious. Indeed, once it has shaken off that introspection, it unfurls with mainly black fruit, briary, sous-bois, hints of dark chocolate and mocha, perhaps one of the first Troplongs that I have encountered that is reminiscent of Pomerol. The palate is medium-bodied with very supple tannins. This is beautifully balanced with extremely well judged acidity. Its gentle personality belies the backbone of this Troplong, with touches of white pepper and tobacco toward the cerebral finish. It is a wonderful Saint-Émilion from Aymeric de Gironde and his team, more approachable than the 2018, to be frank, just a wine you are going to want to drink. 2024 - 2050

The 2019 Troplong Mondot is composed of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple colored, it needs coaxing to unleash exuberant scents of crushed blackberries and black raspberries, giving way to a core of juicy plums, dusty soil, aniseed, and sandalwood with wafts of rose oil and cracked pepper. Full-bodied, lively, and bursting with youthful red and black fruits, it has a fine-grained texture and lively backbone, finishing long with lots of savory layers.

The 2019 Troplong Mondot is a blend this year of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc, harvested from the 10th to the 25th of September. The pH is 3.55—pretty incredible when you consider the alcohol is nearly 15%! I hasten to add that from tasting, I would have guessed this was 14.3% to 14.5% alcohol. It is the kind of wine with so much energy it practically does pirouettes on your palate.Opaque purple-black colored, the nose is fantastically floral, bursting from the glass with notes of candied violets, red roses and lavender over a core of plum preserves, wild blueberries and black raspberries with touches of garrigue, tilled soil, wild fungi and crushed rocks plus a waft of powdered cinnamon. The medium-bodied palate is like a tightly coiled spring, featuring beautifully knit layers of black and red fruits, earth and floral notes within a firm, fine-grained frame and bags of freshness, finishing long and mineral laced. This is a far cry from the old-school style of Troplong Mondot from a few years back, and it is incredibly impressive. This wine is aging in French oak barriques, some larger vats, and a small proportion is in amphorae. The oak portion is 60% new.

Straight away a depth and clarity to the raspberry, loganberry, bilberry, cassis fruits, with touches of gunsmoke. As it opens in the palate, and the whole thing deepens, suddenly drops down, a trap door of flavour opens and you start to see just how good this wine is. Contained power, with liquorice and mint leaf. Waves of aromatics, see the construction and how it opens in the palate. This is impressive, confident. Thomas Duclos consultant. 65% new oak, and 35% one year old barrels, with trials on amphoras and with larger 70hl oak casks. Harvest September 11 to October 5, a leisurely harvest. With wines that have changed their vinification in the way that Troplong has (Aymeric de Gironde arrived in 2017), tasting in bottle is really important to see if the changes can hold during ageing and live up to promise.