Trotanoy 2019 (750ML)

100 JD / 99 VM / 99 WI / 98 DE / 98 JS / 97 WS / 97 JA

Reminding me a little of the 1998, the 2019 Château Trotanoy is all Merlot sourced from a 7-hectare vineyard planted on dark clay and gravelly soils. A prodigious wine in every way, it offers a serious, dense, powerful, full-bodied style as well as notes of ripe black cherries, damp earth, tobacco, cedar pencil, and graphite. As with the other top wines in the vintage, it has an incredible sense of purity and precision, building, firm tannins, awesome mid-palate depth, and a huge finish. It's not for those seeking instant gratification and is much more structured and backward than I would have thought from barrel. It needs a solid decade of bottle age and will have 40+ years of longevity. It's another brilliant, brilliant wine from this team that I wish every reader could taste. –Jeb Dunnuck

The 2019 Trotanoy is blessed with ineffable delineation on the pure, focused nose, which features touches of pencil lead and sous-bois embroidered through a mélange of red and black fruit. Astounding. The palate is perfectly balanced with seamlessly integrated oak and a cashmere texture, complete and oozing effortless class. I don’t know whether to drink or elope with this Pomerol. Better, perhaps, to stick it away in a cool damp cellar for a decade and then make all your friends jealous when you serve it. A serious contender for wine of the vintage. –Neal Martin, Vinous Media

The 2019 Trotanoy, 100% Merlot, is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs swirling to bring out decadent scents of blueberry preserves and prunes, followed by notes of lavender, star anise, and crushed rocks with a ferrous undercurrent. The full-bodied palate has tons of energy with loads of mineral sparks and a racy line, textured by very fine, ripe tannins, finishing with great length.—Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

Ripe and expressive on the nose, with a serious perfumed edge that stands out. Quite floral in fact. Powerful and well built, this has muscles and walls of tannin but they're so smooth and velvety, supporting the fruit and giving an excellent frame to the palate. Certainly a masculine style, it's dark and brooding with lots of mint, liquorice and stone. Textured and taught. It's all muscle at the moment, almost chewy but so cool and refreshing. I love the intensity and the precision from start to finish. Incredible. –Georgina Hindle, Decanter

Aromas of peanut brittle, blackberries, crushed stones, violets and blueberries. Full-bodied and powerful with layers of creamy, velvety and juicy tannins. A classic Trotanoy with true character of itself. Wonderful length and character. –James Suckling

Dense and ripe but with a sleekness and sense of reserve, as the core of cassis, blackberry paste and fig pâte de fruit notes is flanked by warm earth, roasted alder and tobacco notes. The finish is underscored by a bolt of cast iron, with everything knitting steadily through to the end. Offers a serious tarry grip, too.—James Molesworth, Wine Spectator

Black cherry by the bucket load, muscular and just a little monolithic at this early stage, the standing stone of Pomerol, so effortlessly itself. This really does take its time, but there are waves of flavour that slowly but surely appear. Chiselled black chocolate shavings, smoky espresso, rosemary, pencil lead, truffles and a wall of tannins. A flash of bitter spice on the finish. Harvest September 21, with everything coming in during just one day, 32hl/ha yield, and unusually only Merlot as parts of the vineyard are being replanted. This needs time to unwind, and I may be underestimating how high it will go. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux