2015 Château Montrose 2. Cru Saint-Estèphe

Before Château Montrose grew wine, the château was known as an excellent place to go hunting. However, in the late 1700s, when Alexandre de Segur bought the Château, it was converted to viticulture. Alexandre de Segur was a well-known château owner who also owned Mouton, Lafite and Latour - 3 of the world's most famous wine châteaux, all of which today have 1st Cru Classé status. Originally called La Lande de l'Escargeon, in the 1800s the château was part of the large Château Calon Segur, under the ownership of the Dumoulin family. The chateau only began official viticulture in 1815, and in the world-famous 1855 classification, it became the youngest of all wine estates to receive Cru Classé status. There is no official documented explanation of where the name Montrose comes from. However, local 'legend' has it that the slope turned pink in the summer when it was in full bloom. Pink is 'rose' in French, and local sailors passing by the river called the area 'Mont Rose'. Fast forward to the 1900s, Montrose was under the ownership of the Charmoule family for 3 generations. During this period, the family made Montrose one of the best wines in all of Bordeaux - at 1st Cru Classé level. The divestment from the Charmoule family would originate in 1989, when the Bouygues brothers tasted the legendary 1989 vintage. Thomas Bouygues stated that the wine was so fantastic that if the château ever came up for sale, he would buy it. In 2006, this became a reality and Charmolue sold the château to the Bouygues brothers, a wealthy family who owned Bouygues Telecom and Bouygues Construction. A few years later, they even bought the neighboring castle, Tronquoy Lalande. One of the first appeals Bouygues made at Montrose was to hire skills to raise the quality even further. Jean Bernard Delmas (former director at Château Haut Brion) and Herve Berland (previously spent 4 decades at Mouton-Rothschild) were hired as winemaker and director. Then began extensive renovations of the chateau and wine cellar, which lasted until the 2013 harvest and amounted to an estimated 55 million euros. The chateau consists of 95 hectares, primarily planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. In 2010, Montrose purchased 22 hectares of vineyards from the neighboring chateau, Phélan-Ségur - land that originally belonged to Montrose. The vines are between 40 and 60 years old and Montrose aims to be 100% organically farmed by 2025. The wine has achieved icon status and is among the most exclusive wines in Bordeaux, with 1st Cru Classé level quality. Eminent!