The 2010 Montrose is composed of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it needs a lot of swirling and coaxing to bring out notes of baked plums, boysenberry preserves, warm cassis, and licorice, followed by hints of mocha, tapenade, crushed rocks, and cast-iron pan. The full-bodied palate has a formidable structure of very firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness supporting the voluptuous black fruit and mineral layers, finishing long, long, long.

The 2010 Montrose is insanely beautiful. A vivid, eternal wine, the 2010 dazzles right out of the gate with its explosive energy. Soaring floral and mineral notes are immediately captivating on the bouquet. All that carries through to the palate, where the wine is dense and expansive. Readers lucky enough to own it should be thrilled. This really benefits from aeration. What a wine! -- Antonio Galloni

Young, but not quite primary, there is such a wealth of ripe, sweet, black, and red fruit, it is hard not to be seduced by the endless layers of flavor, fruit, and tannins on the palate. This is one of those wines where once it gets going, it seemingly never wants to stop, and that's a good thing because you want as much of those perfectly ripe, poised, vibrant black and red fruits as you can get, as they coat your palate and stay there. Give it a few more years and it will only get better. Drink from 2025-2060.99 Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/search-wine-tasting-notes/?szSearch=2010%20Montrose

Fabulous inky rich depths to the colour here, and right off the nose you feel it enticing you in. Spice is evident, as are the ripples of muscles and walls. This is in the Lynch Bages school of not being ready yet, the tannins are still fully standing to attention. Fruit is dark, tight, hiding its fleshier side for now, and it is extremely clear that this is a vintage with ambition and no intention of going anywhere for many decades. A great wine, needs to be opened for five to six hours if drinking soon, but my suggestion would be to put it away for another three or four years at least.

Still extremely young, feels significantly more closed than the 1996, with a greater emphasis on spicy black pepper and cassis, and still firm tannins. You feel the tannins pressing in on the close of play, whereas in the 1996 the tannins are now like spun silk, fully integrated. I last tasted this wine two years ago, and it is clearly starting to move into the next phase now after a stubborn beginning, coming out of itself and showing the finesse and the elegance of the vintage. The tobacco and crushed mint leaf notes emerge after five minutes of swirling and sniffing, and this has a long future ahead and is packed with appellation typicity. Harvest September 22 to October 7. First year in the new stainless steel vat room with bigger capacity and smaller sized vats covering 50hl, 80hl, 100hl, with just a few 200hl vats for the blend (previously entirely 200hl wooden vats).

While I have a slight preference for the 2009, the 2010 Château Montrose is an undeniably great wine that has everything you could want from this terroir, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it merit even a higher rating in another decade. Blackberries, currants, licorice, spicy herbs, and lead pencil are just some of the nuances here, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a concentrated, layered, powerful mouthfeel, present tannins, and a great, great finish. It benefits from a decant and will probably have another 75 years of life, but I'd say we’re clearly in the early stages of its prime drinking window.

A perfumed and pure Montrose, with lots of currants, berries and spices that evolve to chocolate and light coffee. Full body, with super racy tannins and bright and clean finish. Very fine and structured. A balance and freshness to it all as well as beautiful form and tension. Try in 2018.

(97+ points) One of the most youthful and powerful wines in this tasting is the 2010 Montrose, a year when only 52% of the estate's production went into the grand vin. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of crème de cassis, cigar wrapper, black truffle and loamy soil, it's full-bodied, deep and layered, with a rich core of concentrated fruit that's framed by a muscular tannic chassis. Some 2010s are beginning to show their cards, but this Montrose will still require patience. - William Kelley

Rock solid, displaying a dense core of plum, steeped currant and braised fig fruit, with racy charcoal and ganache notes. Intensely chalky, offering flesh and refinement to match the bracing minerality, this shows hints of grilled savory, iron, warm paving stone and bitter orange on the riveting finish. Should age very slowly. Best from 2019 through 2038. – JM

This is such an elegant wine that has all the structure of the vintage. Surrounding the tannins, the wine is sweet and ripe, with smokiness from the wood. It’s powerful, elegant and sophisticated with a strong sense of poise. The tannins promise long-term aging.

95+ Tasted blind at the Southwold Bordeaux 2010 tasting. Chateau Montrose can be so curmudgeonly in its youth that in blind tastings, it can seem like appraising an ogre in a beauty contest. That's what happened here, when it really threw me with its introspective pencil-box inspired nose that simply tells you to bugger off and not come back for at least a decade. The palate here is a mixture of red and black fruit with saturated tannins. This is a classic Montrose with a persistent tarry aftertaste. Re-tasting the wine after a few minutes it begins to unwind and merits a more lenient score.