Montlandrie 2023

The 2023 Montlandrie sees a change in composition, as a plot of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon that Noëmie Durantou planted in 2021 enters the blend for the first time. She found the first-pressed wine for the Cabernet Sauvignon impressive, so she also added that to the blend. The result is 55% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, picked between September 18 and 30 and matured in 50% new oak. This new makeup certainly gives it a different aromatic profile than previous vintages: black cherries, cedar and pencil shavings, very focused, more Left-Bank-meets-Right-Bank in style. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins. It’s beautifully structured and judiciously spiced with gentle grip on the finish. Together with Les Cruzelles, these wines represent outstanding value for money. This will certainly age well in bottle.

A blend of 55% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon matured 50% in new oak, the 2023 Montlandrie offers up aromas of flowers, wild dark berries and mulberries with a touch of reduction. Medium to full-bodied, dense and rich with a concentrated core of fruit, it’s enrobing and charming with structuring tannins and a long, licorice and smoke-inflected finish. It will offer a broad drinking window.

The addition of Cabernet Sauvignon has really taken this property's potential to the next level, it now sits with Cruzelles as the best of the Durantous' value estates. Ruby-purple in colour with a nose that now blends ripe red and darker cassis fruit, there is an iron filing and graphite edge together with lightly toasty oak. The palate is much the same in fruit profile, and again this once broad-shouldered wine now shows more finesse and direction. Layering chalky tannins with cool blackcurrant fruit and succulent red cherries, this has a more chiselled profile but is still open and will be ready to drink fairly young. A real step up, and a wine that will be great value this year.

Sophisticated for the appellation, with blackberries, hazelnuts and a hint of salt. It's medium-bodied and polished, with refinement and length. Nice energy.

A plot of Cabernet Sauvignon planted in 2021 came on line this year, so there is more Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend of the 2023 Montlandrie than usual. The blend is 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 55% Merlot and it is deep garnet-purple in color. It charges out of the glass with powerful notes of baked plums, black cherry preserves, and black raspberries, followed by hints of mint tea, clove oil, Indian spices, and fragrant soil. The full-bodied palate is jam-packed with expressive black fruit layers, framed by velvety tannins and bags of freshness, finishing long and opulent.

This is a serious Montlandrie, has far more Cabernet Sauvignon than usual, and shows a gorgeously savoury ethereal quality, with slow burn release of black fruits, oyster shell salinity, raspberry leaf and peony aromatics, precise, a slow burn, enjoyable. 36hl/h yield. Noëmie Durantou winemaker.

The 2023 Montlandrie is a rich, expansive wine. In 2023, the blend includes more Cabernet Sauvignon than in the past, and that comes through in the wine's textural breadth. Succulent dark plum, crème de cassis, lavender, spice, leather, tobacco, incense and dried herbs build effortlessly in the glass, culminating in a broad, resonant finish that is quite striking. This Montlandrie is such a gorgeous and complete wine.

55% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc. Cask sample.
Purple hue. Dark fruit with a touch of cassis on the palate. Tight, long and linear but with sufficient fruit to handle the tannin. Builds on the palate. Delicious if a little hard on the finish. A new dimension with the increase in Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. (JL) 14.5%
Drink 2030 – 2038