Farr Vintners Logo

La Mondotte 2020

RegionBordeaux
Subregion France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietyMerlot/Cabernet Franc

This super-cuvée is made by the Canon La Gaffelière team from 4.5 hectares of 60 year old vines - 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc. The tiny vineyard is situated near to Troplong Mondot and Tertre Rôteboeuf. It burst onto the scene at the height of the garage wine boom with a monster 1996. Annual production is usually less than 1,000 cases.

View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by La Mondotte

Label

Tasting Notes

Blackberries, blueberries and flowers such as lavender and dark roses on the nose. Dried flowers as well. Feels medium-bodied with seamless tannins that spread across the palate. Savory and agile with a weightless feel. Hints of white pepper and salt. Makes you want to taste it. Better after 2026.

99
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, May 2023

I typically have a weakness for Canon-la-Gaffelière, with its high percentage of Cabernet Franc, in the Von Neipperg portfolio. But this year, it's the 2020 La Mondotte that takes center stage, offering up aromas of dark berries, plums, licorice, incense and vine smoke, followed by a medium to full-bodied, layered and vibrant palate of striking harmony and concentration. It's the most seamless, complete wine I've ever tasted from this brilliant clay-limestone terroir. 2025 - 2050

96+
William Kelley, Wine Advocate, April 2023

Ruby and violet-laced colour, glass-staining berry fruit, clear limestone influence, sappy and a little austere, slate and juice. Muscular in its colour and aromatics on the attack, then it contracts halfway through the palate and the grippy tannins come into play. A yield of 36hl/ha. Good stuff.

Drinking Window 2028 - 2040

94
Jane Anson, Decanter.com, May 2021

Inky purple in the glass. Powerful, ripe fruit on the nose, with roasted cherry and plum jam. The palate is not over-extracted like it could be in the past, but there is a full, rich and ripe core of fruit. This is full of glycerol, giving and silky, round and full-bodied mouthfeel. Dense black fruit and toasty oak compete through to a bold, enduring finish. Not for the faint-hearted.

90/93
Farr Vintners, Farr Tasting, April 2021

(90% M, 10% CF; 36hl/ha; 14.5% ABV; 60% new)
Intensely black-fruit ripe on the nose; deep, concentrated wine, with a marked acidity, and fine but long-term, slightly chewy tannin; very ripe black cherry in flavor, the acidity giving it a great sense of vigor and vitality, long and close-grained, racy and exciting to taste, intense yet without excess, and with splendid length. A very harmonious Mondotte in its intense, showy, somewhat muscular style. It will need a decade at least to really begin to show its paces. 2032–50+.

93/94
Michael Schuster, The World of Fine Wine, May 2021
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.