1976 CHÂTEAU MONTROSE 1976

(09-1996) Good fruit, good grip, silk-clad tannins. Slightly sweaty tannin on the nose but sweet and rich.

(02-2015)

(08-2014) In the early days of this wine, I think this was one of my favorite and most highly recommended wines when I did my review of the 1976s, which was generally very critical of the vintage. The wine is fully mature and should hold for another 5-10 years, but it showed very well in the vertical at Chateau Montrose. The year 1976 started off with great promise. Early spring had a very hot April, May and June with no vineyard diseases, but an extreme drought in July, August and September caused vineyard stress. During harvest, rain caused some dilution in numerous vineyards. The harvest occurred between September 15 and 29. This is a fully mature, very complex wine, with notes of cedar wood, new saddle leather, mulberries, and blackcurrants. The wine has some loamy soil notes and unsmoked cigar tobacco in a medium to full-bodied, very complex and fully mature style.