Farr Vintners Logo

Trotanoy 2018

RegionBordeaux
Subregion France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > Pomerol
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietyMerlot

Trotanoy is one of the top names of the Pomerol appellation and is has been made by the Jean-Pierre Moueix company since the 1950's. The 7.2 hectare vineyard is planted with 93% Merlot and 7% Cabernet Franc. Very limited quantities available.

View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Château Trotanoy

Label

Tasting Notes

Super nose of dried blueberry, black plum, walnut, myrrh and sandalwood. Lavender, violet, and chocolate, too. Ripe with wood now, but fresh. It’s full-bodied with firm, ultra fine tannins. Lots of dark spice is interlaced with the ripe fruit, giving this complex, perfumed character. Muscular, long and seamless with incredible depth and concentration. Reminds me of the great 2009, but this is better with more structure. Amazing wine. This is 100% merlot. Try from 2027.

100
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, March 2021

Another heavenly Pomerol in the vintage, the 2018 Château Trotanoy checks in as 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc brought up in (I suspect) lots of new French oak (although it's certainly not apparent). Revealing a dense purple hue as well as a smorgasbord-like bouquet of blackcurrants, dried flowers, cured meats, violets, tobacco, and chocolate, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a sexy, seductive texture, building yet sweet tannins, and just a rich, concentrated, yet flawless profile on the palate that's already impossible to resist. Nevertheless, a good 7-8 years of bottle age are warranted, and this magical elixir is going to evolve for 40 years or more.

100
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com, March 2021

The 2018 Trotanoy is composed of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, it slowly unfurls to reveal a jaw-dropping perfume of Black Forest cake, black raspberries, blackberry pie and kirsch, followed by hints of cast-iron pan, violets, woodsmoke, Chinese five spice and eucalyptus, with a waft of tree bark. The full-bodied palate explodes with exotic spice and mineral fireworks, grounded by a concentrated, black and red berry preserves core and framed by firm, grainy tannins, finishing with epic length and depth. It will need a good five years in bottle to tame some of the youthfully overt, showy fruit and allow the mineral and earth nuances to emerge, then it should easily cellar another 35 years or more. 2025 - 2060

99
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (End of Mar), March 2021

This is powerful and beautiful, pulsating with black fruits, liquorice and confident tannins - it doesn't just walk the line, it owns the line.

While it perhaps doesn’t quite have the pure and absolute majesty of 2010, it is another crazy good year for Trotanoy offering an unusually seductive charm along with the power.


There’s no question that the vintage was handled with aplomb; there’s not the slightest trace of the warmth of the summer with the feeling that the wine ate it right up just taking what it needed. 98-100 points.

Drinking Window 2028 - 2045

98
Jane Anson, Decanter.com, April 2019

Tasted blind. Definite Cabernet aroma. Broad and smooth and opulent. Essence of Pomerol! But it hits the spot. Glamorous, intense wine.
Drink 2026 – 2042

17
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, February 2022

90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc. Barrel sample.
Black core with deep cherry rim. Sweet black fruit with a touch of vanilla. Darker and more savoury on the palate, with lovely freshness that is both acidity and tannins. Fine-boned even with all this fruit concentration and aromatic richness. Thick, compact chewy tannins that build in the mouth and need plenty of time in the bottle but the balance is there for a long life though there is a slight hardness on the finish at the moment. (JH)
Drink 2028-2038

17.5
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com, April 2019

Deep purple in the glass, with rich and dark fruit on the nose. The palate has great depth of black fruit, supported by glossy but plentiful tannins that are ripe but mouthcoating. The fruit has fantastic delineation - creamy cherries, fresh black plum, cool blackcurrant - and is supported by well-judged savoury, lightly meaty oak. The finish is long, pure and firm. This will be a fantastic Trotanoy for those willing to lay it down.

95
Farr Vintners, Farr Tasting, April 2019

Gorgeous, showing hefty structure throughout, carrying waves of tobacco- and charcoal-coated cassis, steeped plum and warm fig fruit. The dense finish is packed together now and seriously long. A very complete wine that helps set the bar in this vintage.

97/100
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, March 2019

(90 Merlot, 10 Cabernet Franc) Marvellously belligerent in 2018, Trotanoy does not feel the need to jump through hoops for us tasters because it knows just how good it is. Instead this wine crouches, tightly-wound in the corner revealing little of its flavours. Only the empty glass after tasting revealed the complexity and scale of the fruit in this wine. Initially I thought that there were only black fruit tones here, but the empty glass with the red wine stains reveals some mulberry and cherry notes, too, which mean that this is a far more complex being than one might have guessed. It will be a slow-mover, but this will be a giant in years to come.

18.5+
Matthew Jukes, MatthewJukes.com, April 2019
Read more tasting notes...

This is such a pinpointed and precise wine that shows a fantastic center palate of ripe and rich fruit with a combination of chocolate and cedar. Full-bodied, racy and focused. Lasts for minutes.

98/99
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, April 2019

The medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Trotanoy is made of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The first sniff and WOW, it gives an incredible perfume of red roses, candied violets, molten licorice and spice cake over a core of plum preserves, raspberry compote, dried mulberries, iron ore and camphor plus a waft of woodsmoke. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is laden with exquisitely polished, beautifully poised red and black fruit layers with loads of mineral sparks, framed by super ripe, rounded tannins and wonderful freshness, finishing very long, culminating in a lingering ferrous note.

97/99+
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (April 2019), April 2019

Made from a 90/10 split of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the 2018 Château Trotanoy is a deep, powerful, almost brooding effort that oozes notes of blackcurrants, graphite, spice box, and a liqueur of rocks-like minerality. Massively concentrated, full-bodied, and structured as all hell, it's not for those looking for instant gratification, but it’s a legendary Pomerol in the making. A decade of cellaring might not be enough.

97/100
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com, May 2019
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.