Château Troplong Mondot – 2013 – Saint Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé B

This is a youthful, very intense colour, ruby-red, really colouring the glass. The nose is also very youthful intense, pure, quite modern style here. There is a generous amount of oak, offering some slightly smoky flavour aromas, vanilla. Dark fruit, really ripe fruit, such as plum and blackberry. Really nice bite on the palate. I like this combination of concentration and freshness. It has a lot of lushes fruit, those dark berry notes with some hints of chocolate. I think the oak is really discreet, not too noticeable on the palate. It shows some roasted flavours on the finish. Really lushes and enjoyable fruit, first of all. It is underlined by plenty of tannin, quite grainy, quite fine, still showing their youth. They are really vigorous and present, but overall the balance is fine. The great emphasis is again the lushes dark fruit. This is doubtlessly a young wine that should develop more complexity from further aging. I think it has a good balance in there. There is nothing hard or harsh there. Good level of freshness, giving a lift to that modern dark fruit. Oak is in place, really good length, good purity of fruit. A wine that should definitely go along well. But for those who would like this style of wine in its youth, twenty minutes in the decanter, with a big piece of steak that should do the job.

Tasted by the Best Sommelier of the World, Andreas Larsson.