It boasts an inky/purple color along with a gorgeous bouquet of mocha, chocolate, blackberry and cassis fruit, an unctuous texture, a full-bodied, viscous mouthfeel and a skyscraper-like, multilayered finish. This spectacular wine is nearly overwhelming in its richness, thickness and intensity. Once all its baby fat falls away, the terroir characteristics and additional nuances will emerge. This blockbuster, fabulous Troplong Mondot will benefit from 10-15 years of cellaring and keep for three decades or more. It is not shy either, bouncing over the palate with 15.5% natural alcohol.

The 2009 Troplong Mondot will provide plenty of competition for the 2010, 2005 and 2000. It comes closest in style to the prodigious 1990 that proprietress Christine Valette produced 22 years ago. A phenomenal effort, it unquestionably justifies its relatively new Premier Grand Cru St.-Emilion status. Readers should keep in mind that the 1990, which probably has lower acidity and not the level of concentration found in the 2009, is drinking incredibly well at age 22 and reveals no signs of falling apart.

(94-97 pts)
I tasted this wine four separate times, with three tastings extremely consistent, and one tasting showing slightly more noticeable and astringent tannin. Do I think it is going to be as prodigious as the 2005? No, but it is a compelling Troplong Mondot, and probably more approachable than the 2005 has been in its youth. This is a large vineyard, nearly 80 acres in size, and part of it had hail damage in May. They are late-harvesters, the Merlots were picked through October 10 and the Cabernet finished October 20, with very low yields of 30 hectoliters per hectare, no doubt due at least in part to the hail damage. Alcohols on lots chosen for the grand vin are very high, between 14.5 and 15.5. The wine is inky purple in color, displaying beautiful creme de cassis, licorice, subtle smoke and graphite notes, enormous body, juicy, viscous texture, good vibrancy, a skycraper-like, multi-dimensional mouthfeel, and a whopping long finish of 40+ seconds. This is a great wine, probably more hedonistic and voluptuous than the 2005, but ultimately a tiny notch below that virtually perfect Troplong Mondot, which still gets my nod as the best ever made. This wine should evolve for at least 30-40 years. (Tasted four times.)

96pts - Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Troplong Mondot bounds out of the glass with plum preserves, spice cake, mincemeat and potpourri scents plus suggestions of exotic spices, incense and a waft of balsamic. Full-bodied, super rich, concentrated and plushly textured, the hedonic fruit possesses loads of spicy layers and a very long and decadent finish. If you love wines you can stand a spoon up in, you're gonna go nuts over this extravagant beauty.Lisa Perrotti-Brown, March 2019

96pts - Deep garnet colored, the 2009 Troplong Mondot bounds out of the glass with plum preserves, spice cake, mincemeat and potpourri scents plus suggestions of exotic spices, incense and a waft of balsamic. Full-bodied, super rich, concentrated and plushly textured, the hedonic fruit possesses loads of spicy layers and a very long and decadent finish. If you love wines you can stand a spoon up in, you're gonna go nuts over this extravagant beauty.Lisa Perrotti-Brown, March 2019

Although this is very ripe and rich with a generous body and a slew of black fruit aromas it’s also elegant and poised. The bitter chocolate character is more restrained than in many modern-style Right Bank wines of this period and there's a lovely balance of lively acidity with fine dry tannins at the complex finish. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019) - Stuart Pigott, jamessuckling.com, March 2019

(15.5% alcohol on the label!): Saturated medium ruby. Enticing aromas of cassis, coffee, mocha and licorice pastille. Hugely dense but fine-grained, offering a liqueur-like, exotic sweetness to its superripe dark fruit and chocolate flavors. For all its richness and baby fat, the wine's chalky underpinning prevents it from coming off as monolithic. Perhaps most impressive on the broad, extremely long, palate-staining finish, which features a boatload of ripe tannins and repeating sexy oak tones. This outstanding Troplong-Mondot should drink well for the next 25 years.

[90M/5CF/5CS] Densely ripe blackberry and blueberry fruit; rich, ample, very well constituted wine with a generous, fleshy core, and a refined, non excessive tannin texture; ripe, juicy flavour with a clear St Emilion delicacy; long and pure and subtle alongside the seductive juiciness of fruit; blackberry and cassis sweet, delicate, refined, transparent, fresh - you accept the slight wood dryness as part of the style, it doesn't really get in the way, and the core fruit is so beautiful. A long, sweet, warm, fruit fragrant finish. Lovely Troplong, its alcohol weight notwithstanding! 2018- 40