Château Trotanoy: Tasting & Drinking
In these days of fleshy, creamy, accessible wines from the right bank, occasionally plumped up with new oak, to discover a wine such as Château Trotanoy is a delight. This is not necessarily an easy wine to fall in love with; indeed, in my early years of exploring Bordeaux, it was one of the wines in Pomerol I found most difficult to understand. Its firm structure and savoury character seemed a world away from the supple seduction that some other wines so readily offered.
Since then I have come to understand Château Trotanoy a little better I think. These might be wines that are tight, structured and ungiving in their youth, but there is undoubted quality here, a melding of reserved substance and a cerebral depth. And in fine vintages such as 2009 and 2010, they have the brooding potential to sit among the very best wines of the Pomerol appellation. Testament to the skill of the Moueix team, however, is the fact that even in less prodigious vintages, such as 2011 and 2012, or even 2007, the wine can still make a wine lovers heart beat a little faster. The early editors of Cocks et Féret got it right after all – behind Petrus, this is one of the top estates of the appellation and it deserves the praise I dish out in my notes below. (11/6/09, updated 18/12/14)
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