TN: 2000 Château Montlisse (France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru)

WINE TALK
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  • 2000 Château Montlisse - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (6/27/2018)
    One of the wines I inherited from my uncle, who died last year. I divided up his collection with four other relatives. This was in my share, a “petite chateau” from the right bank of no material value. Decanted for about an hour and then followed for about 2 hours. Mature right bank is not the best part of my knowledge base. It seems like most of the mature Bordeaux I have and have had for the past decade is left bank or at least has a strong cabernet Sauv. component. This is merlot all the way. One website reports 85% Merlot, 7.5% Cabernet Franc, 7.5% Cabernet Sauvignon for the 2008, so probably similar. Not a surprise. The tanins are almost all gone or resolved and the mouth feel is velvety. The palate is very subdued with a bit of red fruit but after a while it developed other flavors, notably berries. Raspberry and even strawberry.

There was no earthy left bank mature saddle leather stuff a la the Cordier wines. This wine was very pure. no negative characteristics and left bank fanatics would probably have rated it higher - I just found the flavor profile a bit light for my liking.

NOTE: The storage on this wine was probably terrible. I do not know when my uncle bought it, but he stored most or all of his wines in the bottom of his closets under the shoes and in similar locations. The cork came out clean - no Durand required - and it was only soaked about half way through. We had three other wines from his collection when we all got together on Friday night and they were also fine. No evidence of bad effects of weak storage.

This wine is no where near the end of its aging curve and it did not seem to be on the downslope. My guess is that it will be fine for another 5-10 years, although this was the only one I have. (88 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Day 2 - very interesting. I poured the last few ounces into a glass at the end of day 1 and then forgot to finish it and left it in the bedroom. 24 hours later, I noticed it so I took a taste. Still alive and actually a bit fruitier than the day before as my tongue began playing tricks on me as the wine was right on the edge of fully mature versus starting to maderize. This may have more than a decade left in it.