2019 Château Troplong-Mondot, Grand Cru Classé St-Emilion

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.

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.

Clear salinity, this grips with a dual character of seduction alongside precision. Estate signature in that it has coiled power with its berry fruits and cocoa notes, with a chalky depth to the tannins reflecting the clay and limestone soils. Complex and rich, but conserving its energy. The hidden power is perhaps the biggest difference with the old Troplong pre-2017, when they were happy to show the power right from the start. There are a lot of layers going on here, real complexity that is in no hurry to reveal itself. A creaminess comes in as the texture widens and softens. High alcohol despite earlier picking dates, because the terroir is the boss here! 3.55pH, tannin index of 70IPT. Thomas Duclos consultant.

The 2019 Troplong Mondot is sensational. Rich, vibrant and explosive, the 2019 pulses with energy. Black cherry, violet plum, licorice, lavender and dark spice build in a statuesque Saint-Émilion endowed with tremendous energy and pure power. Troplong Mondot is not as obvious a wine as it was a few years ago, but its grandeur - and more importantly, the grandeur of this site - are evident. Troplong Mondot is a wine that simply can't be denied. The 2019 is aging in 60% new oak and 40% a combination of once-used barrels, foudres and amphora. Troplong Mondot has undergone a radical transformation since 2017 under the stewardship of Managing Director Aymeric de Gironde. Today, picking is earlier, there is greater focus on a parcel by parcel approach at harvest, no SO2 is used until barreling down, and for the first time, none of the malolactic fermentation was done in oak. Harvest took place from September 10 through October 7. De Gironde was among the managers who reported clusters of uneven ripeness, but added he is more comfortable with that than he might have been a few years ago, a way of thinking that is becoming more common in Bordeaux. In tasting, Troplong Mondot remains a big, broad-shouldered Saint-Émilion, but now it also has more energy and vibrancy than in the past.