Chateau La Mondotte 2019

Professional Ratings

• 99 Jeb Dunnuck

  A gorgeous wine, yet one that's going to demand bottle age, the 2019 La Mondotte comes from a tiny vineyard located just beside Pavie Decesse and is always a blend of mostly Merlot with roughly 15-30% Cabernet Franc, brought up in new French oak. Mulled blackcurrants, darker cherries, tobacco leaf, chocolate, lead pencil, and burning ember-like nuances all emerge from this brilliant wine, and it's full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, with good acidity, building tannins, and a great, great finish. It holds onto the more classic, focused style of the vintage, yet it's a beast of a wine that brings the goods. Hide bottles for a solid 7-8 years or more, count yourself lucky, and it's going to have 30-40 years of longevity.

• 97 James Suckling

  This has a fragrant nose of blackberries, red tea, cloves, bark, orange zest and dark chocolate. Sandalwood and tile, too. Full-bodied with chewy yet supple tannins and fresh acidity. Seamless and rich. Long and muscular.

• 96 Wine Spectator

  This is a gorgeous display of fruit, with boysenberry, fig and mulberry notes rolling through, showing both muscle and refinement as they carry a punch, while staying silky and lush in feel. There are sweet tobacco, sous bois and black tea flavors peeking in on the finish and this is remarkably fine-grained for the vintage. A clear classic. Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

• 95 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  Aromas of smoky blackberries, black truffles, pipe tobacco, loamy soil and rose petals introduce the 2019 La Mondotte, a medium to full-bodied, deep and velvety wine that's lively and gourmand, with a rich core of fruit that's framed by beautifully polished tannins. This Merlot-dominant cuvée derives from vineyards on the plateau neighboring Troplong-Mondot, but the soils are shallower here, without the same reserves of deep clay.

• 92 Decanter
  Concentrated big framed fruit flavours; attractive damson and black cherry, lashed in with liquorice, chocolate and black truffle. One of my queries with the Pavie stable is how little vintage variation there is, although this gives them full marks for maintaining signature. No question that this is an impressive wine.