| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
The very well situated Troplong Mondot vineyard of 33 hectares contains 85% Merlot with 2% Cabernet Franc and 13% Cabernet Sauvignon (high for St Emilion). This Chateau used to produce concentrated St Emilions under the control of consultant wine-maker Michel Rolland and his team. The black coloured wines made here were not for those who prefer the more classic, subtle style of St Emilion but were popular with certain American critics. However the property was sold in the summer of 2017 and Aymeric de Gironde (formerly of Pichon Baron and Cos d'Estournel) brought in by the new owners to take charge. The new wine-making consultant is Thomas Duclos who also advises Canon. There have been massive and revolutionary changes here, as we expected, with picking at a much earlier date and all the manipulative extraction techniques abandoned in favour of more traditional wine-making. The harvest started on September 7th and was 70% complete within 8 days.
Has any Bordeaux château realized a more wholesale stylistic revolution in so short a time than Troplong Mondot? Since Aymeric de Gironde arrived at the estate in late 2017, the ultra powerful "shock and awe" style of the 2000s is out, and a new refinement is in. Of course, the deep clays that define the core vineyards around the château itself are never likely to produce light or ephemeral wines, but de Gironde has astutely understood that (to develop an analogy), when driving down hill, one can ease off on the accelerator. The 2019 Troplong Mondot is a ringing endorsement of the new direction, wafting from the glass with complex aromas of wild berries, violets, coniferous forest floor, licorice, raw cocoa and subtle spices, followed by a full-bodied, velvety and layered palate that's seamless and perfumed, its enveloping core of succulent fruit framed by rich, powdery tannins and lively acids. Harmonious and penetrating, I never thought I'd taste a wine like this from Troplong Mondot. Drink Date 2027 - 2060.
From: Bordeaux 2019: The Southwold Tasting (Feb 2023)
The 2019 Troplong Mondot is composed and beautifully-focused on the nose, well-defined with vivacious brambly red fruit suffused with minerals and black truffle shavings. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, finely proportioned, fresh yet without huge weight at the back end. This gives it a degree of elegance that is admirable. Charming and with long-term prospects. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.
- By Neal Martin on January 2023
Drink 2025-2050
The 2019 is a blend of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc. Aymeric de Gironde has transformed the style of Troplong Mondot in a move towards freshness since his recent appointment. Deep ruby in colour. Sweet dark cherries and plums come together with toasted spices and a fine, floral edge that offers lift and finesse to the fruit on the nose. The palate is plump and round, showcasing the effortless ripeness of the vintage without a hint of over extraction. Soft, ripe tannins gently frame a core of fleshy red and black fruits. The spice of wood is subtle and lightly savoury, reigning in the ripe fruit rather than adding to it. This succulent yet elegant Troplong is a testament to the work being done here. The wine now shows transparency of place and vintage, with a lighter touch from the winemaking team, and is all the better for it. The spherical nature of this wine suggests it will drink well in 4-5 years time, but there is no doubt of the ageing potential here.
The purity of fruit is pretty phenomenal here with blackcurrants, cherries and crushed-stone undertones. Floral notes of roses and violets, too. Full-bodied, yet this is a linear style with super fine tannins and great length and beauty. You really want to drink it. It grows on the palate and shows real power, with breadth and depth. Remains fresh throughout. Really something. Try after 2026.
The 2019 Troplong Mondot is composed of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple in color, it gives up scents of redcurrant jelly and black raspberries, plus wafts of wild sage, lavender, and underbrush. The full-bodied palate delivers fantastic tension, with firm, grainy tannins and a long minerally finish.
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 2019 is a blend of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc. Aymeric continued his changes here by limiting green harvesting and deleafing to add freshness and reduce over-concentration, and harvesting earlier. Malolactic fermentation was carried out entirely in tank this year, rather than in barrel as was previously the case. Yields are 44hl/ha in 2019, down 15% on 2018. The new oak is down to 60% and has a lighter toast, with 40% second fill barrels. Two more 20hl foudres are now in use, as well as 3 amphoras. Aymeric transformed the style of Troplong Mondot and produced one of the finest and purest wines of Saint Emilion in 2018. He is even happier with the mould of the 2019, in terms of projecting the new image for this Chateau. the colour is a vibrant ruby and the nose wonderfully fresh, full of cool blackcurrant but mostly red fruits. there is a floral edge of cherry blossom and violet that makes this supremely fragrant and enticing. The palate is savoury and moreish, with crunchy tannins framing a core of summer fruits. The oak is subtle, more sappy than sweet with notes of cedar and savoury tpices. The bright, cleansing acidity gives a lithe mouthfeel, lifting all the riper, darker fruits into floral overtones. Aromatic and fine, through to the finish. A very elegant Troplong Mondot. Tasted in Bordeaux.
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.
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.
