2020 Château Montfollet Le Valentin, Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux
91-92 points – JamesSuckling.com 92-95 Point Vintage, Wine Spectator
Tasting Notes
A deep garnet-red wine with purple tint, perfumes of jammy black fruits and touches of vanilla and spices, a rich mouth, full and delicate: a blend of fruits, toast and liquorice, perfect to share on special occasions with fine dishes of red meat or cheese.
Terrior
Superb clay-limestone slopes facing South, South-East and South-West, overlooking the Gironde estuary, the vineyard is bathed in light throughout the year and benefits from the mild temperatures of the oceanic climate.
An intense black colour, a very complex nose with aromas of black fruit, cocoa, vanilla and spices, a powerful and full mouth with silky tannins, a very aromatic finish boosted by notes of candied fruit and toasted bread.
Terrior
A superb plateau of red gravels facing South, South-East, overlooking the Gironde estuary, the vineyard is bathed in light throughout the year and benefits from the mild temperatures of the oceanic climate.
Specs
Vintage: 2020
Varietals: 95% Merlot, 5% Malbec
Appellation: Côtes de Bourg AOC
Alcohol: 15%
What’s Included
4-bottles:
2x 2020 Château Montfollet Le Valentin, Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux
2x 2020 Château Montfollet Altus, Côtes de Bourg Case:
6x 2020 Château Montfollet Le Valentin, Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux
6x 2020 Château Montfollet Altus, Côtes de Bourg
Price Comparison
Not for sale on winery website, $360/case MSRP
About The Wineries
Winery: Château Montfollet
Owners: Dominique Raimond
Location: in the heart of Blaye and Cotes de Bourg appellations
In the heart of the best terroirs of the appellations of Blaye and Bourg, this family estate of 67 hectares of vines is located on the hillsides of red clay and limestone, overlooking the Gironde estuary, on the right bank, facing the most prestigious Margaux’s Grand Crus. It has been in the Raimond family for three generations.
Today, attentive to reveal the potential of these wonderful terroirs while respecting the environment, Dominique Raimond, a passionate winemaker and the current owner, uses all the means to get real “Grands Vins de Bordeaux”.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
Château Montfollet Mixed Bordeaux - $39 = 19.11%
I wonder if it’s too late to cancel my other “last order for a while” from last week… these are really great and I still have some left from July but, I did wish I had ordered more.
@Lidio@winecatlady
have to agree. One bottle for now to assess, one for a year or so later to see progress and the last to really enjoy when likely at it’s peak.
Wine arrived today, took a while so it surely shipped ground through many temperature changes. Measured the temp of the outside of a bottle from the box, 42° upon receipt. Not knowing the route it took from California to New Hampshire, I can only guess that it went through some of those record temperatures this past week and probably sat out in the sun cooking more than once, only to be deeply chilled gain. Approximately 1 out of every 20 bottles I’ve received from Casemates had turned. I store them in a climate-controlled cellar upon delivery. Knowing global logistics, I realize it’s impossible to regulate temperature throughout the shipping process, but I’m wondering if anyone has some solid feedback about the effect of temperature fluctuation, on red red wine in particular, though I’m sure white wines should not get heated beyond a certain point.
@mattig88 Wine is a lot more hardy than most people give it credit for. Unless you plan on laying a wine down for 7+ years I wouldn’t even think about it in most cases.
Extreme heat and extreme cold can both damage the wine, of course, but usually you’ll see it in pushed out and/or leaking corks. For cold to damage a wine it more or less needs to turn into slush or have part of the bottle freeze. If you’ve ever chilled down a white wine in the freezer you know that takes a long time in very cold conditions. Heat damage can be more subtle, but that only really comes out with long term ageing. You also should keep in mind the thermal mass of a case of wine: very large. It takes a lot of energy to heat/cool 9 litres of liquid to the point where it affects the chemistry of the wine. I’d have to go back and find my old thermodynamics class notes, but the packaging provides a lot of protection and the temperature gradients would need to be super big for a couple hours of exposure to make a difference. The scenario you outline just doesn’t make sense. Wine in the 40s is nowhere near frozen. Wine sitting in the cold yet getting a lot of sun via the box also doesn’t particularly heat up.
I am truly shocked that 5% of the wine you’ve gotten from here was “turned”. What do you mean by that? There are so many options! If you mean:
-turned to vinegar, that’s microbial spoilage and would have been present at bottling. It’s also exceedingly rare in modern winemaking unless it’s sulphite-free.
-Oxidized, then it’s likely a faulty cork and could be a result of leaking from shipping mishaps. In some cases it could also be part of the wine’s style.
-Bland and sharp could be “lightly” corked, because before you can perceive TCA as wet newspaper or wet dog it basically obliterates fruit aromas.
-Secondary fermentation is a result of either having too much residual sugar at bottling and/or a problem in the fining and filtering process. Wines that undergo sterile filtering can’t have this problem, but then they also tend to be mass produced gak.
-Sediment - almost never an issue. But if a wine wasn’t cold stabilized or the like, then exposure to cold can cause tartrate to precipitate out of solution and create a LOT of sediment.
The list goes on, but you get the point. For reference, I’ve had 3 or 4 shipments get cooked en route over the 16 years I’ve been buying wine from here and wine.woot. The number of corked bottles is countable on two hands. The number of otherwise spoiled bottles is even lower. The number of “bad” wines is similarly vanishingly small.
@klezman I appreciate the information, and as I’ve seen you quite a bit on these comments, I can assure you that you have more experience with wine than I. By turned, I do mean vinegary, seems more common with the Wine Smith selections, though I’ve had a couple of really sour white wines, where one bottle is delicious and another from the same shipment is entirely different and unenjoyable. I’ve also noticed subtle differences between bottles of red from the same order and I don’t really understand how that happens but it could very well be me. Thanks again!
@mattig88 It’s probably a combination of you and the wine. That’s something that is super interesting about wine - think about how a wine pairs with food. Some foods enhance the wine, some foods make it taste like crap, and everywhere in between. What you’re describing is the larger version of that - the totality of your mental and physical state, along with the surrounding environment, most definitely impacts our perceptions of food and beverage. And there is also plenty of bottle variation. Maybe wine more so than other things.
Winesmith actually has a whole thing about pairing wine and music, which is part of the larger story there too. It’s all really interesting.
I neglected one important thing in the list of above flaws - volatile acidity, also known as VA. That’s a series of compounds that each can turn into the other, like acetic acid (vinegar), acetone, and related compounds. Like with anything else in wine, some people are more sensitive to it than others. Most winemakers also test their wine for VA content, and some winemakers like to encourage a little bit of it to form because it enhances the complexity of the wine. (Brettanomyces is a similar thing in that sense.) But a VA level that enhances complexity for one person might smell like vinegar or nail polish remover to another. Perhaps you are more sensitive than many, or maybe the bottle variation got you on those wines.
But what I can say with near certainty is that the perception you had is not related to temperature in transit. With a WS wine it likely is a bit of VA, which is different from microbial spoilage with acetobacter that turns it, quite literally, into vinegar.
And “sour” in wine is always an interesting one. Even “fruity” wines have a very acidic pH, almost always in the 3s. But the acidity is almost all tartaric and malic and lactic acids. This is one of the reasons I started getting nerdy about wine - I learned that I like wines with higher acidity and lower pH, all else being equal. Having the stats on all the WW and CM offers helped me learn that, and almost everything I learned about wine came from here.
@klezman great info, and some really good points. I will say I’m a little bit of a whiskey and rum snob, and I don’t typically have the same issue with whiskey or rum; I feel they’re always consistent. But I could rave about a bottle of wine the first time I drink it and then the second or third or fourth time I have it, it’s not great.
There was a recent Magnum offer and one of the bottles I received was pretty old, but when I tried to take the cork out it was dry and basically disintegrated. Needless to say, that wine was horrible. I think I’ve stolen enough of the thread, and again, I do appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I still have two cases in transit, which will bring my collection up to about 200 bottles so I’ve got plenty more wine to sample.
2020 Château Montfollet Le Valentin, Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux
91-92 points – JamesSuckling.com
92-95 Point Vintage, Wine Spectator
Tasting Notes
Terrior
Specs
2020 Château Montfollet Altus, Côtes de Bourg
91-92 points – JamesSuckling.com
Tasting Notes
Terrior
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale on winery website, $360/case MSRP
About The Wineries
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Mar 4 - Tuesday, Mar 5
Château Montfollet Mixed Bordeaux
4 bottles for $67.99 $17/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $164.99 $13.75/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2020 Château Montfollet Le Valentin
2020 Château Montfollet Altus
previous offer Jun 14, 2023, with all the side orders of Rats and reviews.
@rjquillin
And case price is now $20 lower!
@rjquillin The Rats really liked them.
@pseudogourmet98 @rjquillin the benefits of not having summer shipping…
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
Château Montfollet Mixed Bordeaux - $39 = 19.11%
I wonder if it’s too late to cancel my other “last order for a while” from last week… these are really great and I still have some left from July but, I did wish I had ordered more.
4 seems like too little for two wines, and 12 too much. Why not a 6 pack?
@winecatlady I’ve always wondered that myself. I think it’s to incentivize us buying a full case.
@Lidio @winecatlady
have to agree. One bottle for now to assess, one for a year or so later to see progress and the last to really enjoy when likely at it’s peak.
Anyone in SF Bay Area want to split a case?
@winecatlady Hi! I got a case to split if you didn’t end up getting one. I am in SF.
If anyone in the RI-MA-CT area would like to split a case, do reach out!
/giphy lumpy-offensive-jupiter
How opportune, my last bottle from the 6/23 offer is waiting for some friends. REALLY enjoyed the last 11, and the PP is better.
“1,500 cases were produced and 1,000 exported”. Is this common ?
@forlich much more common than 1000 produced and 1500 exported, I would think.
But seriously, it’s not clear what your “this” is.
Or something else?
@SelfGovern I meant is it common for a winery to export 2/3 of their production
/giphy bushy-shivering-coil
Wine arrived today, took a while so it surely shipped ground through many temperature changes. Measured the temp of the outside of a bottle from the box, 42° upon receipt. Not knowing the route it took from California to New Hampshire, I can only guess that it went through some of those record temperatures this past week and probably sat out in the sun cooking more than once, only to be deeply chilled gain. Approximately 1 out of every 20 bottles I’ve received from Casemates had turned. I store them in a climate-controlled cellar upon delivery. Knowing global logistics, I realize it’s impossible to regulate temperature throughout the shipping process, but I’m wondering if anyone has some solid feedback about the effect of temperature fluctuation, on red red wine in particular, though I’m sure white wines should not get heated beyond a certain point.
@mattig88 Wine is a lot more hardy than most people give it credit for. Unless you plan on laying a wine down for 7+ years I wouldn’t even think about it in most cases.
Extreme heat and extreme cold can both damage the wine, of course, but usually you’ll see it in pushed out and/or leaking corks. For cold to damage a wine it more or less needs to turn into slush or have part of the bottle freeze. If you’ve ever chilled down a white wine in the freezer you know that takes a long time in very cold conditions. Heat damage can be more subtle, but that only really comes out with long term ageing. You also should keep in mind the thermal mass of a case of wine: very large. It takes a lot of energy to heat/cool 9 litres of liquid to the point where it affects the chemistry of the wine. I’d have to go back and find my old thermodynamics class notes, but the packaging provides a lot of protection and the temperature gradients would need to be super big for a couple hours of exposure to make a difference. The scenario you outline just doesn’t make sense. Wine in the 40s is nowhere near frozen. Wine sitting in the cold yet getting a lot of sun via the box also doesn’t particularly heat up.
I am truly shocked that 5% of the wine you’ve gotten from here was “turned”. What do you mean by that? There are so many options! If you mean:
-turned to vinegar, that’s microbial spoilage and would have been present at bottling. It’s also exceedingly rare in modern winemaking unless it’s sulphite-free.
-Oxidized, then it’s likely a faulty cork and could be a result of leaking from shipping mishaps. In some cases it could also be part of the wine’s style.
-Bland and sharp could be “lightly” corked, because before you can perceive TCA as wet newspaper or wet dog it basically obliterates fruit aromas.
-Secondary fermentation is a result of either having too much residual sugar at bottling and/or a problem in the fining and filtering process. Wines that undergo sterile filtering can’t have this problem, but then they also tend to be mass produced gak.
-Sediment - almost never an issue. But if a wine wasn’t cold stabilized or the like, then exposure to cold can cause tartrate to precipitate out of solution and create a LOT of sediment.
The list goes on, but you get the point. For reference, I’ve had 3 or 4 shipments get cooked en route over the 16 years I’ve been buying wine from here and wine.woot. The number of corked bottles is countable on two hands. The number of otherwise spoiled bottles is even lower. The number of “bad” wines is similarly vanishingly small.
@klezman I appreciate the information, and as I’ve seen you quite a bit on these comments, I can assure you that you have more experience with wine than I. By turned, I do mean vinegary, seems more common with the Wine Smith selections, though I’ve had a couple of really sour white wines, where one bottle is delicious and another from the same shipment is entirely different and unenjoyable. I’ve also noticed subtle differences between bottles of red from the same order and I don’t really understand how that happens but it could very well be me. Thanks again!
@mattig88 It’s probably a combination of you and the wine. That’s something that is super interesting about wine - think about how a wine pairs with food. Some foods enhance the wine, some foods make it taste like crap, and everywhere in between. What you’re describing is the larger version of that - the totality of your mental and physical state, along with the surrounding environment, most definitely impacts our perceptions of food and beverage. And there is also plenty of bottle variation. Maybe wine more so than other things.
Winesmith actually has a whole thing about pairing wine and music, which is part of the larger story there too. It’s all really interesting.
I neglected one important thing in the list of above flaws - volatile acidity, also known as VA. That’s a series of compounds that each can turn into the other, like acetic acid (vinegar), acetone, and related compounds. Like with anything else in wine, some people are more sensitive to it than others. Most winemakers also test their wine for VA content, and some winemakers like to encourage a little bit of it to form because it enhances the complexity of the wine. (Brettanomyces is a similar thing in that sense.) But a VA level that enhances complexity for one person might smell like vinegar or nail polish remover to another. Perhaps you are more sensitive than many, or maybe the bottle variation got you on those wines.
But what I can say with near certainty is that the perception you had is not related to temperature in transit. With a WS wine it likely is a bit of VA, which is different from microbial spoilage with acetobacter that turns it, quite literally, into vinegar.
And “sour” in wine is always an interesting one. Even “fruity” wines have a very acidic pH, almost always in the 3s. But the acidity is almost all tartaric and malic and lactic acids. This is one of the reasons I started getting nerdy about wine - I learned that I like wines with higher acidity and lower pH, all else being equal. Having the stats on all the WW and CM offers helped me learn that, and almost everything I learned about wine came from here.
@klezman great info, and some really good points. I will say I’m a little bit of a whiskey and rum snob, and I don’t typically have the same issue with whiskey or rum; I feel they’re always consistent. But I could rave about a bottle of wine the first time I drink it and then the second or third or fourth time I have it, it’s not great.
There was a recent Magnum offer and one of the bottles I received was pretty old, but when I tried to take the cork out it was dry and basically disintegrated. Needless to say, that wine was horrible. I think I’ve stolen enough of the thread, and again, I do appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I still have two cases in transit, which will bring my collection up to about 200 bottles so I’ve got plenty more wine to sample.