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In the winery: Matured for 20 months in new French barriques, Hungarian, French and American hogsheads. In the glass: Inky dark red. On the nose: Ripe dark fruit, a hint of mint, toasty oak and cedary development.On the palate: Intense black fruit power melding well with deluxe mocha oak a rich, dense and complex reserve style with tight, grainy tannins and spicy acidity.

La Dame de Montrose, first vintage 1983, is the highly-regarded second wine of Chateau Montrose, the St. Estephe deuxième cru (second growth). Montrose has a little more than 90ha of vines, the entire site overlooking the Gironde. The vineyard is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. Around 50% (or less) of the crop goes to make the grand vin and around 30% (or more) goes into La Dame de Montrose. (The rest is used elsewhere or sold in bulk.) In good years La Dame de Montrose is considered a bargain, in the best years it stands alone as a great wine. The Dame de Montrose herself is the late Yvonne Charmolüe, who ran the estate from 1944 to 1960.

This is the second wine of La Mission Haut-Brion. About 4000 cases are produced each year.

Vasse Felix, Margaret River's founding wine estate, was established by Dr Thomas Brendan Cullity in 1967. Among his first plantings were Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec vines, from which he produced the estate's first red wine. The Tom Cullity descends from these original vines and represents the pinnacle of Vasse Felix. The inaugural release will be in May 2017, coinciding with Vasse Felix's 50th Anniversary.