Chateau La Mondotte 2020
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Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Blackberries, blueberries and flowers such as lavender and dark roses on the nose. Dried flowers as well. Feels medium-bodied with seamless tannins that spread across the palate. Savory and agile with a weightless feel. Hints of white pepper and salt. Makes you want to taste it.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A true blockbuster in the vintage is the 2020 La Mondotte, which comes from a tiny 12-acre parcel of limestone soils located near Troplong Mondot, Pavie, and Larcis Ducasse, on the upper limestone plateau. Emerging from the talented team of Stephan von Neipperg and brought up in new barrels, it has a wonderfully pure, clean, medium to full-bodied style offering integrated oak, a straight, focused texture, and incredible purity in its darker berry fruits as well as notes of gravelly earth and liquid violets. It’s common for the wines from the upper plateau to show more perfumed ethereal aromatics (as opposed to more richness from wines on the hillside), and this is incredibly perfumed, elegant, and aromatic while still offering density, structure, and length. It’s going to take 7-8 years to hit maturity, but it should see its 30th birthday in fine form.
Barrel Sample: 96-98 -
Wine Enthusiast
This Premier Grand Cru Classé single vineyard wine is packed with solid tannins and impressively rich fruits. The wine's structured and densely dry core offers a panoply of flavors and richness all coming together to age well.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I typically have a weakness for Canon-la-Gaffelière, with its high percentage of Cabernet Franc, in the Von Neipperg portfolio. But this year, it's the 2020 La Mondotte that takes center stage, offering up aromas of dark berries, plums, licorice, incense and vine smoke, followed by a medium to full-bodied, layered and vibrant palate of striking harmony and concentration. It's the most seamless, complete wine I've ever tasted from this brilliant clay-limestone terroir. Best after 2025. Rating: 96+
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Wine Spectator
Shows the warmth of the vintage with a dark plum, boysenberry and black currant core but manages it well, with sleek, well-embedded chalky minerality providing a serious spine, while sweet tobacco, alder and loam accents peek in on the fruit throughout. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2030 through 2040.
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Decanter
Ruby and violet-laced colour, glass-staining berry fruit, clear limestone influence, sappy and a little austere, slate and juice. Muscular in its colour and aromatics on the attack, then it contracts halfway through the palate and the grippy tannins come into play.
Barrel Sample: 94
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Wine
The vines are an average of 50 years old and the vineyard contains only premium grape varieties (75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc). Ripening, especially of Merlot, is almost invariably early and complete. The terroir, age of the vines, and infinite attention paid to viticulture and oenology, combine to produce truly great wine at La Mondotte. The terroir also confers unparalleled finesse. This rare wine (maximum annual production of just 11,000 bottles) is always in very great demand.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.