A few months ago a friend opened a 2000 Montrose (one of my fav producers). I had bought a case on release but haven’t touched them. I remember thinking I’m glad to have waited, as the wine has great potential but just is not ready yet.
Well…enter La Dame de Montrose 2000, which I opened last night, with grilled rib eyes. Delicious! Perfect spot in its evolution. This second wine, at this point in time, IMHO is as good as or better than many of the 2000 second growths. Much of the typical Montrose profile, but with the volume turned down a couple of notches. Maybe not quite as feral as its big brother. And really hard to beat the price. 93
I remember being similarly impressed with the 1990 Dame (mag) about ten years ago.
Yyyyep. A fantastic second wine, for sure. It’s been quite disheartening to see it rapidly increase in price over the past four years from $35ish to $55 - $60 — an increase that cannot be fully attributed to tariffs.
Thanks for the note. What would you say are similar 2nd wines that are good or as good as the dame here? Looking to buy more Bordeaux in the $40-75 range with some age. Thanks!
A very good question, Rodrigo. I wish I had an answer. I remember buying the Carruades de Lafite and Pavillon Rouge (Margaux) at attractive prices as 2000 futures, but those prices are now more like top tier 2nd growths.
I got into Bordeaux in part though second wines, as it was interesting to me that some were made with the same care as the grand vins but others were the equivalent of the fashion designer discount warehouse blend. Dame de Montrose is just flat out the best for the money imo. Mondot, Troplong’s second, is unbelievable in some years (2005, 2009, 2010) but not so hot in others. If you can find them, Petite Eglise and Petit Lion de Marquis etc etc are wonderful in the years that the grand vin excels. The deal with all of those, though, is that they need time. If they only have 5 years bottle age on them, they aren’t that different than similar cru bourgeois. Petit Smith Haut Lafitte is excellent but Hauts de Smith isn’t great. Petite Figeac (in all its various names) is pretty good, I’ve had mixed-to-blah results with Pagodes, Hauts de Pontet Canet, Reserve de Leoville Barton and Echo de Lynch Bages. I have one Forts de Latour and one Pavillon Rouge lined up but I haven’t tried them yet. Apologies for spelling everything wrong, but I’m a more dedicated drinker than editor these days.
Check some of these out $35-$37 range (pulled them off today’s WS-Pro list). The shops I buy from were willing to hold the wines out of Country for free up to a year and then do a split cost of tariff if need be. Regarding the additional cost if tariff still exists, it’s your call but for me I am completely ok with taking the risk. $45ish with tariff is worth it for me. Hope this helps.
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