Bordeaux tasting trip: Montrose, Mouton, Cos, Angelus, Clinet, Canon La Gaffeliere, SHL and LCHB

WINE TALK
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First time visit to BDX - 3 day tasting trip. Day 1 visited Chateau Montrose, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and finished with a members dinner at Chateau Cos D’Estournel. Day 2 was Chateau Angelus, Chateau Clinet and Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere. Day 3 was Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte and Chateau Les Carmes Haut Brion.

Trip was inspired by many of the experiences described in the forum so many thanks @ Jeff_M1, @ Julian_Marshall and many others who contribute to the forums – a truly invaluable resource!

All bookings made directly with the Chateau in mid-August 2025 for the visit between 6-8 November. Also, based on the feedback here we booked Henri Challeau for Days 1 & 2 (although day 2 he was busy but he gave us Ben). Both were great and I highly recommend. We are already planning our trip for next year and look forward to joining Henri again.

I didn’t take notes so this is more a fact-base summary for those who plan something similar.

We arrived late in the evening of 5 November and stayed at Premier Hotel des Vignes et des Anges in Pauillac for 2 nights. Hotel is simple, comfortable and value for money.

DAY 1:
Chateau Montrose:

First tasting at Chateau Montrose at 10.30. I believe our guide was called Marc, and he was great. Tour of buildings and grounds, vineyards facing the river, VAT room, the cellars (which are spectacular as most pictures will attest) and finally to the tasting room.

The wines offered were the 2019 Le Dame de Montrose and the 2015 Montrose. Tour and tasting were free.

12.00 Lunch at Café Lavinal: Good food, long but expensive wine list – would recommend.

Chateau Mouton Rothschild:

2.30pm – tour and tasting at Mouton at a cost of 350 EUR/person. Guide was called Arthur – another fantastic guy!

We were there 2 hours and included tour of facilities and VAT room, cellars, both museums and then a tasting of 4 wines: d’Armailhac 2018, Clerc Milon 2016, Le Petit Mouton 2014 and Mouton Rothschild 2006.

Chateau Cos d’Estournel:

Black tie dinner at 6.00pm as part of the Members Club. Dinner by Jerome Banctel (3* chef from their Paris hotel). About 40-50 people inside the Chateau itself – short tour of facilities then 5 course dinner with wine pairing.

Wines were (i) Champagne Micheal Reybier Premier Cru (ii) Cos d’Estournel Blanc 2020 (magnum); (iii) Cos d’Estournel Rouge 2015 Magnum; (iv) Cos d’Estournel Rouge 2005; (v) Cos d’Estournel Rouge 1995 Magnum and (vi) Tokaj, Hetszolo 5 Puttonyos Dulo 2013.

Food and wine were great. Overall consensus was that the 1995 was the WOTN but I loved the 2005.

DAY 2:
Started early from Pauillac as we had a long drive to the right bank (90 mins). We also finished the day driving from St Emilion to Bordeaux city center (60 mins). In hindsight this was an overly long day in the car – would not advise such long distances.

Chateau Angelus:

11.00 am tour and tasting (no fee). Short tour of building and cellars. The VAT room was undergoing renovations. Tasting was the 2016 Carillon de l’Angelus and the 2016 Chateau Angelus. Impressive as one would expect.

Quick short lunch at Logis de la Cadene (1 star Michelin). 3 course market menu for 60 euros. Food was exceptional – would love to go back for one of their longer menus.

Chateau Clinet:

2pm – Short drive to Pomerol for a tour and tasting. The size of the winery/facilities compared to others was stark but only really added to the charm and the overall impression. Booked the Premium tour (EUR 99/person) with Nathalie Bez who hosted us.

5 wines were included (i) Ronan by Clinet; (ii) By Clinet and then 3 vintage vertical of Chateau Clinet with 2017, 2019 and 2022. We definitely overstayed our time here but Nathalie was great and we had a wonderful visit.

Château Canon La Gaffelière

4pm – we overstayed at Clinet so were late arriving at Canon La Gaffelière. Nevertheless they kindly accepted to give us the tour and tasting even though it was the end of the day on Friday. I do not recall the name of the tour lady, but she was super. We had booked the “CLG Exclusive Premium Tour” which was EUR 65/person and included 4 wines (Château d’Aiguilhe, Clos de l’Oratoire, Château Canon La Gaffelière and La Mondotte).

Due to the amounts we had already consumed we asked to taste only Canon La Gaffelière and La Mondotte and were offered the 2016s. But again the hospitality was top-notch and our host brought out another vintage of the two wines (I think it was either 2018 or 2020) to compare! Also just before we left the owner Stephan von Neipperg popped into the tasting room and we had a lovely chat for about 10-15 mins. A big regret that we did not get a picture with him!

For dinner we were back in Bordeaux City and went to Resources (1 star Michelin) as we had heard good things. Unfortunately this was not a good meal – none of the dishes came together and we just did not enjoy any of the offerings. We left early without finishing the menu. The only disappointment of the trip – such a difference with Logis de la Cadene.

This was a long day and maybe overly ambitious in both distance covered and winery tours. For future visits we will aim for 2 a day.

Day 3:

Château Smith Haut Lafitte

11.30am: We did the “Taste of Paradise” tour and tasting (EUR 209/2 persons). Beautiful chateau and facilities, very enjoyable tour and tasting with Thibault. 3 Wines included (i) Le Petit Haut Lafitte 2016; (ii) Smith Haut Lafitte Rouge 2018 and (iii) Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc 2023.

Short lunch at La Table du Lavoir which is part of the hotel/spa they have. Very busy barn-type restaurant and the food was very good.

Chateau Les Carmes Haut Brion:

2pm: We did the “Instant” tour at EUR 85/person with Agathe. Another superb experience and alongside Clinet the two most fun tours/tastings. Amazing grounds/winery and the tasting included 3 wines: (i) “C” Des Carmes Haut-Brion 2019 (ii) Les Carmes Haut Brion 2016 and Les Carmes Haut Brion 2018.

For dinner we walked around Bordeaux city which was beautiful and then a quick dinner at 1544 Restaurant – nothing special but enjoyable.

Overall – for a first time visitor like me – what will stay in the memory was the hospitality of everyone we met – from Henri to all the guides in the chateau. All super knowledgeable, happy to share their views of wines/vintages (to my surprise many of the Left Bank guides have the 2018 as their favourite recent vintage) and all were generous with their time and their pours. They really made the trip. Finally, even though we visited 8 wineries in 3 days – everyone does something different: in the vineyards, in the winemaking facilities, in the vats, in the barrels, in their approach/outreach to consumers. There was such a variety to the process which was fascinating.

Very grateful to everyone who we met on the trip. If you are in two minds whether to go – I can only advise to do it!

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Thanks for the interesting and detailed notes!
Among msny other things, i find interesting the variance on tasting fees:from none to 350EUR at Mouton, which, I personally, would not have paid given that only one r thw taste was Mouton.
Still, thanks again for the notes and your enjoyment of the trip comes through your whole post.

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The Mouton tour and tasting is one of my favorite of any winery that I’ve ever done, but a large part of that was the ability to see the art museum, which is a collection of the original art labels, and all the related artifacts associated with each label. I would pay to see it yet again. And they were very generous with their pours.

Fabulous tasting and visit report by the OP! Now how about some pics!? :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the enthusiastic notes on your wonderful experience. It’s been many years since I went and visited, only 3 wineries (HB/LMHB, La Conseillante and VCC) and, aside from HB, they were conducted with the principals of the respective chateaus showing my wife and I their respective facilities and telling us how they do their wines. It is admittedly an eye-opener for me that nowadays each chateau seemingly offers various levels of wine visit experiences with exotic-sounding names and each with associated costs…
Oh, and the closest thing we got to your grand-lavish meals at the chateaus was a take-home bottle of 2004 VCC gifted to wife and I by Alexander Thienpont as he pointed us to try lunch at his favorite bistro in St. Emilion :grin:.

Just goes to show how long ago since I went and the high popularity of the visits in the present era. Greatly appreciate your taking us through your visits

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edited: now that it dawned on me , it’s only been 15–16 years since I went but the the transformation of the visit-experiences is quite staggering to me.

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Love reading this stuff. Thanks for sharing and typing it up!

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Great notes. Love going around Bordeaux with Henri. He really is fabulous. Everyone on this board should go around Bordeaux sometime with Henri.

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Love this place

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Well, I’m glad that you find it enjoyable and worthwhile, Robert,
Still, I don’t know many museums that charge, what, 200EUR? to have a look at their collection (deducting the value of the pours). But you said they were very generous poors, so maybe I am offbase.

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Glad you had such fun! I totally agree about limiting oneself to two visits a day. I find one in the morning and one in the afternoon already quite hard work! Also, it allows plenty of leeway for the times when you have such a good experience that you stay a lot longer than expected.

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Excellent notes and thanks for sharing.

I need to get to Montrose on my next visit.

Clinet was also a good tasting for us and was our last before heading off to the airport.

I think you can do 3 tastings in a day but you must work around the lunch period as most wineries are closed and keep your tastings in close proximity.

We were able to do Leoville Barton and Poyferre back to back. It certainly helps that they are right next door to one another.

We pulled off 3 wineries in Graves too with HB/LMHB, Haut Bailly and SHL.

The only reason we didn’t attempt 3 on the right bank was because we were flying back that evening.

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No no, and I hope I did not come across as that way. We all make value judgments on what makes sense to us. I was just offering the counterpoint on the quality of that museum, which is not otherwise open to the public, and how fair they were with their pours. Now bear in mind it’s been some time since I was there, but we got half glasses of each wine and repours on the Clerc Milon and d’Armailhac. That made the cost acceptable to me, but I do realize it’s a lot of money.

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The other thing is sometimes they will pour you more of something else or allow a repour.

They allowed a repour of the Haut-Brion when there and I sure wasn’t passing that up.

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Thank you all for your kind comments and glad you enjoyed the write up. I’ve found this website such a valuable source of information on many topics so happy to be able to contribute.

I found the variance in tasting fees very interesting - but also in context of how different chateau are embracing, or not as the case may be, direct consumers. In St Estephe the difference in approach between Montrose and Cos is a snapshot - the former have reduced the number of negotiants they have been working with to better control distribution and there are no direct sales to consumers and tastings are by invitation (you write - they say yes or no), whereas Cos have visit and tasting options, a members club and quite a long list of vintages to buy direct from. In Pauillac Pichon Baron have a few visit/tasting options whereas Pichon Lalande were one of the very few wineries to not allow a visit. SHL also now have a members club etc.

The Mouton tasting fee was an outlier, but we really wanted to go. The museum is really interesting - you see the original artworks and how these evolved into the labels. As for the pours we found all wineries allowed multiple pours (even the free tastings such as Montrose and Angelus - but I do not feel we overstepped) and in Mouton I had extra pours of the Petit Mouton and the Mouton after asking. As mentioned, the guides were incredibly welcoming and the hospitality was very warm.

I also felt that all the paid tastings offered good value for money for the experience and the tastings (especially Clinet and LCHB). In all cases we chose the more “premium” options in terms of time/wines allocated - there are shorter/cheaper options available in each case.

We contacted many chateau before our visit and the options for tastings are plentiful. My preference is for verticals where available and these are becoming more prevalent I think - Mouton may offer one of these in 2026 they said. Palmer has a great lunch + vertical option, LCHB have a 7 vintage vertical option. They can be expensive and in many cases you need at least 4-8 persons to take advantage as they are full bottles. These options are not always available on their websites but if you contact them they will send you their options. Henri is also a huge help - he helped us shape the itinerary after we received the chateau responses but he can certainly do a lot of the planning/booking as well. I just enjoy that aspect of planning a trip.

3 tastings a day is possible but we had also planned lunch & dinner on that day. Something has to give - and so for next time it will probably be a third tour.

Our day 3 was a Saturday so fewer chateau were open. HB/LMHB, DDC and Haut Bailly are all closed. We had planned to do a short trip to Pape Clement but pulled out at the last minute.

I’ll try and upload some pictures over the weekend but they don’t do the visit justice!

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No worries, Robert,
I’d have spent it at a restaurant, but totally understand.
I want through a fair amount of '85 Mouton about 5-10 years ago, which was a treat. I am still sitting on bottles of '05 Clerc–my son’s birth year. The last one i opened seemed promising.
So, I’m no stranger to the Mouton stable.
Cheers,
Josh