2021 Château Troplong-Mondot, Grand Cru Classé St-Emilion

The 2021 Troplong Mondot was bottled in February 2022, earlier than many estates. I tasted two samples, one decanted earlier and one freshly poured. The latter showed more fruité: black cherries, violet, touches of pencil shavings and dried roses, building in intensity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins, fresh, vibrant and spicy, with an insistent grip and dashes of black pepper and chalk toward the finish. Quite a vertical Troplong Mondot with an almost briny aftertaste, this deserves four or five years in bottle.

The 2021 Troplong Mondot is fabulous. It offers up a rush of dark red-toned fruit, crushed rocks, leather, menthol, cedar and blood orange. As always, Troplong Mondot is marked by a strong presence of Cabernet Sauvignon that seems to add brooding intensity, muscle and power. I tasted it three times. A bottle given a brief decant of about 20 minutes showed best. The 2021 spent 13 months in oak (two months less than normal), in a mix of 60% new, 21% 20-hectoliter cask and 19% once-used. The 2021 is a Troplong Mondot of extreme purity and class.

The 2021 Troplong Mondot unwinds in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cherries and plums mingled with violets, exotic spices and smoke. Medium to full-bodied, deep and complete, the wine is layered and complex, with all the depth and authority that one expects from this clay-driven terroir, its concentrated core of fruit underpinned by sweet tannins and lively animating acids, concluding with a long, resonant finish. A blend of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc with a remarkably low pH of 3.35, it's the first vintage produced in the estate's state-of-the-art new winery.