Château Tronquoy: Tasting & Drinking
Tasting the wine alongside that of Château Montrose during the primeur tastings, my first encounter with the wines of Château Tronquoy, or Château Tronquoy-Lalande as it was at the time, was not thoroughly positive. A difficult vintage, 2007, did not help the wine to shine of course. Nevertheless, the situation was not significantly better in 2008, and I have to confess that at that time I saw nothing in these wines to suggest the estate had such an illustrious history. They were drinkable but rustic, tannic and peppery wines. Having missed out on the 2009 vintage I have not seen what was achieved that year, but the 2010 clearly demonstrated a huge improvement. And since then this estate has never looked back.
No longer were the wines robust and four-square; now they were much more appealing, the palate on both the grand vin and even the second wine in 2010 displaying a soft, harmonious and accessible style, the aromatics were lifted and bright. For what was a classically styled, tannin-rich vintage they showed a remarkable restraint and harmony. Although there was perhaps some vintage effect here, there was too big a change in both quality and style, especially in the quality and integration of the tannins, for this to be the sole factor behind this dramatic improvement.
The veracity of this conclusion was reinforced by subsequent encounters. The 2011 and 2012 were good enough considering the overall characters of these two vintages, while 2013 wasn’t a bad result for such a wash-out year. Things took off with 2014 though, a better vintage in St Estèphe than the rest of the Médoc, and while 2015 and 2017 did not excite, the former less good on the left bank than its reputation in my opinion, the latter a year blighted by frost, the 2016 and 2018 vintages were excellent. I initially withheld opinion on the 2019 vintage, as unlike many of their peers the proprietors did not send out samples during the Covid-19 travel restrictions, but in later years I encountered the wines several times, and it is also a tip-top vintage for the property. It is perhaps slightly ahead of the 2020 vintage, although this too is an excellent choice. While both 2022 and 2023 are simply delicious wines which make it difficult to resist making a purchase for my own cellar.
Of note, I did not taste the 2024 vintage of this wine during the primeurs in April 2025, which if I recall correctly indicates a desire to move away from early tastings of this property’s wines, with a greater focus on tastings and sales once in bottle.
Looking back over more than a decade of ownership it is clear that the investments made by the Bouygues brothers, and the skilful hands first of Jean-Bernard Delmas, then of Hervé Berland, assisted throughout by Yves Delsol of course, have paid dividends here. This is now an estate turning out excellent wines, and offering excellent value for money. No longer an estate to watch, as I once wrote, this is an estate to follow with confidence. (28/3/12, updated 10/2/13, 2/9/20, 19/11/23, 3/1/26)
