53% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc

Food pairings: Roast lamb, ribeye or sirloin, duck breast, game birds, braised beef or beef bourguignon, mushroom dishes, and Comté or Gruyère.

Winemaking: The 2021 was picked from September 26 to October 6. Each block ferments separately in stainless-steel vats for up to 25 days. The wine ages for 12 months in French oak barrels, 30% new, and is racked by gravity and fined with egg whites before bottling.

Vineyards and terroir: Montrose faces the Gironde estuary on the Médoc's third and fourth terraces. Gravel and sand lie over clay with iron-rich layers, and the estate has mapped 26 different soil types. The vines are farmed regeneratively, with sheep grazing between the rows and beehives on the property.

Family: Jean-Louis Charmolüe created La Dame de Montrose in 1983 as a tribute to his mother Yvonne, who ran Montrose on her own from 1944 to 1960. The Charmolüe family owned the estate for 110 years, from 1896, after the Dumoulin family founded it in 1815. Martin and Olivier Bouygues bought it in 2006 and spent seven years renovating it. Charlotte Bouygues and Pierre Graffeuille have led it since 2022.

In the pictures: An aerial view of the Château Montrose winery and its vineyards, 2014, and the château at the centre of its vineyard behind a field of cosmos flowers, 2010 (both photos: Matissecstbd on Wikimedia Commons, credited to Deepix and H. Fabre, CC BY-SA 4.0).