Château Troplong-Mondot: Tasting & Drinking
After Christine Valette and Xavier Pariente took the reins at Château Troplong-Mondot the wines improved considerably, at first at least, and I have detailed in my history many of the changes they and their consultant Michel Rolland put into place to achieve this. Looking back to early tastings the 2004 will always stick in my mind; encountered at the UGCB tasting of that vintage after bottling, when the wines were barely two years old, the 2004 Château Troplong-Mondot was the first wine – after tasting many dozens of others which ranged from fair to very good – that actually gave unbridled pleasure, a wine that actually made you sit up and take notice. Although I think the right bank appellations fared quite well in 2004 anyway, Château Troplong-Mondot must surely be one of the real successes – it was certainly the best wine there on that October day in 2006.
Looking further back in time, I have also taken a lot of pleasure from the 1994. Although it does not have the flesh that many seek from modern Bordeaux, especially modern right-bank Bordeaux, it has always shown an appealingly upright structure, a savoury substance and also more than a touch of attractive perfume. There is certainly evidence of hard work and conscientious winemaking here. This was, of course, one of the ten vintages reviewed by the classification committee prior to the estate’s promotion in 2006.
Having said that, I have also alluded to subsequent developments during the Valette-Pariente era, especially apparent in the 2009 and 2010 vintages. These wines displays a distinct change in style, moving from a wine that was already rich and dark to one that was more powerful, communicated through density, opacity, extraction and alcohol. These wines were as black as night and prodigiously endowed with alcohol, with over 15% in each case (and closer to 16% in truth, certainly in the case of the 2009 anyway). The 2009 vintage was a wine which seemed to fall apart very quickly; certainly by four years of age it felt brawny and hot, and my scores for it during the first four years of its life show the largest shift in opinion I have had on any wine, ever. The 2010 was not much better; it was not a wine that I found appealing, and I have felt this way about many encounters with the wines of Château Troplong-Mondot since. Others critics, perhaps those more interested in texture, colour and power, rate them very highly though.
Now, though, everything has changed. The vintages under Aymeric de Gironde, from 2017 onwards, show a dramatic shift in style and quality. Everything had to be reined in, and it was not an easy task; the first couple of vintages wobbled along a little, the style flirting with being underdone rather than overdone. Within a year or two, however, Aymeric’s darts were hitting the bull’s eye, and the estate was returned to former glories, many of which I experienced in a vertical tasting of the wines looking back as far as the 1964 vintage.
My favourite vintages are thus more recent, with 2023, 2022, 2020 and 2019 coming out in tip-top shape. The 2018 was also a good effort. I have no time for preceding vintages, not at least until we reach as far back as 2008, which was smart. Thereafter I have enjoyed 2005, 2001, 2000, and have an eternal soft-spot for the underdog I find in 1994. In other words, go young or go old here. Don’t go in-between. (24/10/07, updated 16/6/11, 17/12/15, 5/8/17, 10/9/17, 29/3/25)
