A dense and rich wine with so much juicy fruit, from blackberries to plums. Full body and round, velvety tannins. Lots of flavor and enjoyment. Very young still, but starting to open.

Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Monbousquet opens with intense scents of cigar box, new leather, espresso and Chinese five spice with a core of prunes, mulberries and baked cherries plus touches of garrigue and pencil lead. Full and richly fruited, with bags of spicy and savory layers, if has a firm rounded backbone and long, ferrous finish.

This very structured, but polished, style shows a solid coat of coffee for the large core of crushed fig, plum sauce and steeped black currant fruit. Stays dense, but has a strong graphite and iron edge buried deeply on the finish, which should let this assimilate in the cellar. Lovely mineral, sanguine edge. Beautifully built. Best from 2014 through 2030. 7,500 cases made. — JM

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 29/02/2012
This exuberant, flamboyant, modern-styled St.-Emilion from Gerard and Chantal Perse is plump, succulent and irresistible in 2009. Yields were a low 28 hectoliters per hectare, and the blend was a classic combination of 70% Merlot and the rest primarily Cabernet Franc and a tiny dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon. The alcohol of 14.2% is typical for a Monbousquet. Copious notes of toasty oak, vanillin, jammy black and red fruits intermixed with notions of wood fire barbecue, roasted espresso and chocolate jump from the glass of this fleshy, exotic, impressively endowed, full-bodied, silky smooth, opulent 2009. It should drink well for 15+ years.

One of the most satisfying and popular wines among wine consumers in all of Bordeaux is Monbousquet, and even though it is not the best terroir, what Gerard and Chantal Perse have done with this property, which used to make wines that tasted like vegetal, watered-down Beaujolais, is remarkable. Yields in 2009 were 28 hectoliters per hectare, and the final blend of 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon (the traditional blend here) tips the scales at 14.2% alcohol. Absolutely no new oak is showing, which is unusual for this wine, but that tells you how concentrated and textured the fruit is in this vintage. Dense ruby/purple to the rim, with plenty of exotic black fruits, jammy red fruits, some truffle, roasted herbs, and incense, the wine is full-bodied, luscious, exuberant, and opulent. It will be impossible to resist in its youth. This wine should drink well for 10-15 or more years, given the fact that a recently tasted 2000 was still an adolescent. (Tasted five times.) (92-94)

(60% merlot, 30% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon): Deep ruby. Wild nose melds aromas of dark berries, meat, leather, flowers, espresso and smoky oak. Plush, round and sweet, with dark fruit flavors complicated by salty minerality. Finishes with superb ripe tannins and noteworthy freshness. A fine-grained, very nicely balanced example of Monbousquet and not especially outsized for the year.

(a blend of 60% merlot, 30% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon; crop level of 28 hectoliters per hectare; 14.3% alcohol; 60% new oak) Very deep ruby. Crushed cassis, coffee, menthol and violet on the rather cool, smoky nose. Then fairly round, fruity and moderately sweet in the middle palate, but with a slightly peppery quality to the flavors of chocolate-covered cherry, prune and tea leaf. Finishes with subtle persistence and slightly chalky tannins. This was picked relatively early among the Perse properties (between October 1 and 10) and this no doubt goes a long way to explaining its lack of obviously overripe flavors. I was also much less aware of the wine's considerable (14.3%) alcohol than I was with many other high-octane wines in '09.

The 2009 Monbousquet has a refined and quite intense bouquet with pure blackberry, kirsch, Provençal herbs and sandalwood, firmly into secondary aromas territory but full of vim and vigor. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannins, masculine in style with black fruit infused with tobacco and pencil lead. Gently fanning out towards the slightly rustic/brutish yet still very attractive finish with just the right amount of dryness. Drink over the next 6 to 8 years.

Tasted blind. Dense dark crimson. Light but fairly evolved nose. A bit drying – and hot – on the end. Tannins have overridden fruit here. (JR)