The 2023 Troplong Mondot is one of the truly great wines of 2023. Translucent and also quite powerful, the 2023 screams with class. It's a wine that beautifully reconciles expression of place, vintage and the house style that has been in place since 2017. It's one of the finest wines made here over the last decade, a real rockstar. Graphite, spice, mocha and dried herbs build into the huge, dense finish. Tasted two times.

A tight and very focused young Troplong with freshness and finesse that adds plenty. Medium to full body, ultra-fine tannins and a vivid finish. Lots of blackberry and blueberry character. It really opens and envelops your palate, caressing every square inch. Cashmere-like texture. The limestone comes through beautifully.

The aromatics are incredible - so pure, clean and precise - sweet, sour and fresh with clear blue fruits, wax, crayon and pencil led on the nose alongside vanilla, blackcurrant and plum with blueberry too. Supple and agile, a lovely bounce and energy straight away, this has movement and direction. The fruit is pristine, gorgeous succulence and bright berries on the palate before some limestone wet stone elements come in giving a graphite tang. Has that sense of whole bunch fermentation, really racy and so electric. It’s not a 2022, it doesn’t have that velvetines and soft plush tannins that Troplong can do well, but this is extremely good. Straight, juicy, clean, poised, elegant and refined. Not shouting, it’s reserved and calm, but confident. You can taste the chalk on the finish alongside liquorice and graphite. I love the finesse and the terroir markers and in a change to 2021 it has ripeness, succulence and body. 6% press. Three tanks of whole cluster fermentation. 70 IPT. Ageing 14 months, 60% new oak. 3.45pH.

Sporting a vivid purple hue, the 2023 Château Troplong Mondot is based on 84% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc, raised in 50% new French oak with the balance in once-used barrels and foudre. Cassis, spring flowers, crushed stone, and hints of tobacco all define the aromatics, and it has a truly riveting sense of limestone minerality and salinity. Medium-bodied and concentrated, with fine tannins and a great finish, it's a terrific representation of the new (or not so new today) style of this estate. It blossoms with time in the glass and is going to benefit from just 4-5 years of bottle age. It will keep for 30+ years in cold cellars. Drink 2029-2059.

A blend of 84% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc, the 2023 Troplong Mondot unwinds in the glass with aroma of black raspberries, mulberries and cherries mingled with notions of iris, licorice, black tea and spices. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's textural and mouthfilling, with the mid-palate density so typical of this terroir, its concentrated core of fruit framed by beautifully polished tannins and succulent acids.

A blend of 84% Merlot 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc the 2023 Troplong Mondot unwinds in the glass with aroma of black raspberries mulberries and cherries mingled with notions of iris licorice black tea and spices. Medium to full-bodied deep and layered it's textural and mouthfilling with the mid-palate density so typical of this terroir its concentrated core of fruit framed by beautifully polished tannins and succulent acids.As I've written before it's hard to think of any estate in contemporary Bordeaux that has witnessed a revolution more profound than that effected by Aymeric de Gironde at Troplong Mondot since his arrival here just after the 2017 harvest. The château itself sits at the peak of a dome of clay (known to geologists as molasses de l'Agenais) some 11-12 meters thick that has never been eroded away and it's the vines that grow here that represent the heart of Troplong Mondot. These clays were compacted so one of de Gironde's first initiatives was to work to undo that ploughing by horse and employing cover crops. But Troplong's vineyards aren't limited to this dome: they encompass a range of altitudes from 40 to 110 meters above sea level ranging onto the plateau toward the town of Saint-Émilion and almost to its edge to the south obligating a broad window of harvesting dates with greater attention paid to avoiding over-ripeness. Other evolutions have occurred in the winery and cellar: malolactic fermentation now completes in tank instead of in barrel and the percentage of new oak is much reduced and more importantly less impactful in profile. All of which has brought new aromatic range and textural finesse and above all better balance to wines that in trying to push the boundaries in the past tended to exceed them. Having tasted Troplong Mondot back to 1959 over the years I can attest that this site well-farmed is never going to produce light ephemeral wines: power can be taken for granted. What's less self-evident is to render that power with finesse. Troplong Mondot's recent run of vintages has consistently achieved just that.

The 2023 Troplong Mondot was harvested from September 5 to October 9 with 60-70% picked within nine or ten days; other parcels were "stragglers" that required more time. There is actually 4-5% whole clusters in the blendand according to Aymeric de Gironde it works like the vin de presse glueing components of the wine together. Sulfur is only added when the wine is put into barrel. The 2023 has a very well-defined and focused bouquet with pure blackberry raspberry ground chalk and light sea cave scents. The palate is medium-bodied with a very crisp and mineral-driven entry. It's chalky in texture and quite tensile in the mouth with a dash of black pepper on the finish. This is an individualistic Saint-Émilion that will fill out during its élevage. Very long.

84% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc. 53 hl/ha. Cask sample. Complex nose with a stony-mineral edge. Smooth and supple on attack, the tannins silky and plentiful. Fruit fairly dense. Refreshing saline finish. (JL)