Château Montrose is a famous winery in the Saint-Estèphe region of Bordeaux. Due to its above-average grape and wine quality, in 1855 it achieved the second-highest level of Deuxièmes Crus in the major Bordeaux classification, which is still valid today. The winery has been owned by the French industrialist Bouygues family since 2006.
Compared to the other famous Médoc communes of Margaux, Pauillac and Saint Julien on the left bank of the Gironde river, Saint-Estèphe is the northernmost and therefore the coldest of all the regions mentioned. About half of the vineyards are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, followed mainly by Merlot and smaller Cabernet Franc, Carménère, Malbec and Petit Verdot plantings.
That’s how valuable a bottle of Château Montrose 1990 is.
Due to the relatively cold climatic conditions in Bordeaux, Saint-Estèphe wines are often somewhat rustic after bottled and need several years of aging in the bottle to make the tannins smoother. Due to its higher clay content, the soil is slightly cooler than, for example, Pauillac, where the higher gravel content provides better water evacuation and more ground heat.
However, in dry crops such as 1990, the soils of Saint-Estèphe have a decisive advantage, as the clay stores more water than gravel, and therefore the grapes are better hydrated. The 1990s crop from Château Montrose is considered a particularly good crop, with a maximum rating of 100 from American wine critic Robert Parker (75).
When it was launched in 1990, a bottle of Château Montrose cost around 60 francs. But those days are long gone, since then prices have steadily increased. In order to get a perfectly preserved bottle of Château Montrose 1990, you currently need to pay around 700 francs per bottle.