A flat-out gorgeous wine in the vintage is the 2012 Troplong Mondot, which sports an inky ruby/purple color to go with heavenly notes of black currants, smoked earth, plums, licorice and graphite. Full-bodied, seamless, ultra-pure and impressively concentrated, this blockbuster effort needs 3-4 years in the cellar to let the tannins integrate, and it will knock your socks off over the following two decades.

Drinking Window: 2020 - 2040

Review Date: 1st October 2018

The 2012 is another truly great wine from Troplong Mondot. It’s always sentimental to taste this wine, realizing that proprietress Christine Valette (the larger-than-life heart and soul behind this estate) has passed away. She was one of the bright, shining stars of Bordeaux. Nevertheless, her legacy is certainly well-established, and the quality of this wine is beyond reproach. Inky bluish purple, its great notes of cassis, blackberry, licorice are followed by a full-bodied, opulently textured wine with stunning concentration, purity and overall balance. It should drink well for 20-25 years and turn out to be one of the great superstars of 2012. Their 63-acre vineyard was cropped at 31 hectoliters per hectare, producing a final blend of 90% Merlot and 10 Cabernet Sauvignon that achieved 14.2% alcohol.

Drinking Window: 2015 - 2040

Reviewer Name: Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Review Date: 30th April 2015

From a blend of 90% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc, the wine will come in at close to 14.5% alcohol. Dark in color with licorice, jam, earth, dark chocolate, coffee and smoke aromas open to a silky, plush, polished, rich-textured wine filled with sweet, jammy blackberries, dark chocolate and black raspberry. Thick, lush and rich, this is a wine for hedonists. 93-95 Pts

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2035

One of the clear wines of the vintage, the 2012 Troplong-Mondot has been remarkable on several occasions. Sweet crushed flowers, red cherries, smoke, tobacco and plums open up in a heady, sensual Saint-Emilion that hits all the right notes. The 2012 blossoms nicely with time in the glass, gaining volume, but never losing its precision. This head-turning, flashy Saint-Emilion will delight readers for the next two decades, perhaps longer. What a gorgeous wine this is. Sadly, proprietor Christine Valette passed away in the spring of 2013, but her legacy will remain alive for quite some time with wines like this.

Drinking Window: 2020 - 2032

Reviewer Name: Antonio Galloni

Review Date: 1st January 2016

Offers a solid, if slightly chunky, feel, with ganache and charcoal notes coating the core of dark currant preserves, fig paste and warmed plum fruit. Shows lots of smoldering tobacco accents on the finish. Pretty grippy for the vintage, but this is headed in a promising direction. Cellar for maximum effect. Best from 2018 through 2025. 6,250 cases made. -JM

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2035

(90% merlot and 10% cabernet sauvignon; 14.3% alcohol; 31 hectoliters per hectare; roughly 75% of the total production went into the grand vin): Inky purple. Ripe aromas of cassis, stewed plum, dark cocoa, coffee and fresh herbs on the showy nose. On the palate, more ripe dark fruit and chocolate flavors are complicated by vanilla and coffee notes. This very powerful wine comes across as rich and velvety, and finishes with a trace of alcoholic heat. It will be appreciated more by fans of high-pH, internationally styled wines than by Bordeaux classicists.

Reviewer Name: Ian d'Agata

Review Date: 1st May 2013

The 2012 Troplong Mondot has a fragrant bouquet with black cherry, cough candy and touches of marmalade, not complex but vigorous and fresh. The palate is medium-bodied with a fine bone-structure and good acidity. Some expressive Cabernet Franc lends a Left Bank tincture on the spicy, black pepper-tinged finish. Classy, but not sure about its longevity. Tasted twice at Bordeaux Index's Ten Year-On tasting and blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting.

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2032

Reviewer Name: Neal Martin

Review Date: 27th September 2022