Wine Advisor
Trotanoy 2020
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 2020 Trotanoy is the most powerful wine in the Mouiex portfolio this year, delivering a rich bouquet of cherries, dark berries, fruitcakes, licorice, anise and brown sugar. Full-bodied, rich and muscular, with a ripe, heady core of sun-kissed fruit and considerable structuring extract, it concludes with a broad, expansive finish that largely conceals the wine's 15% alcohol. Given its structure and substance, it will certainly require some patience.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Opaque purple-black in color, the 2020 Trotanoy needs considerable coaxing and swirling before it erupts from the glass with powerful notes of prunes, chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries and hoisin, plus nuances of candied violets, star anise and clove oil, with a touch of smoked meats. The big, concentrated, full-bodied palate explodes with decadent black fruit preserves and exotic spices, supported by wonderfully velvety tannins and bags of freshness, finishing with epic length and, finally, lots of earth and mineral layers. A truly impressive titan of a Pomerol, this is going to need a good 6-8 years in bottle, then should go on wowing for 40 years or more.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2020 Trotanoy is tremendous. Even better, it might not take forever to come around! Vertical in build, with tons of explosive energy, Trotanoy offers a beguiling mix of black cherry, plum, licorice, incense, dried herbs, menthol and graphite. There is a ton of energy and structure, along with the signature Trotanoy tannins, but all the elements are so well-balanced.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Trotanoy is simply magnificent in 2020. In most vintages, Trotanoy is quite imposing and hard to read in its youth. The 2020 captures all the energy that is such a signature here and adds immeasurable finesse. The result is one of the most memorable wines of the year. Blackberry jam, chocolate, spice, new leather, licorice and dried herbs build to a remarkable crescendo of aromas, flavors and textures. Trotanoy has all the potential to be one of the wines of the vintage when it is bottled. Memorable.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2020 Trotanoy, one of the vintage's most promising wines from barrel, has retained that backward yet compelling bouquet with black fruit, mulberry and touches of potpourri. Underlying this is a dazzling sense of mineralité that probably has no equal on the Right Bank. The palate is surfeited with tension and poise. Stunning delineation, one of the few genuinely pixelated Pomerols in this vintage. A very nuanced pepperiness emerges towards its extremely persistent finish. What a stunning Trotanoy.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2020 Trotanoy blew me away when I tasted the sample over several hours in the UK. Was it a potential perfect wine? The mere presence of doubt meant that I did not feel mandated to award a perfect score, by a cat’s whisker. Re-examining the Trotanoy at the offices of J-P Moueix, I feel this gives me the mandate to up my potential score. It is simply an astonishing Pomerol that takes all your senses by their lapels and demands attention. There is a beguiling symmetry that no other 2020 possesses, a precision that astounds. Let’s see what this boy can do in bottle then.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2020 Trotanoy is an outstanding Pomerol with fantastic delineation and precision on the nose, unfolding with each swirl of the glass. Very focused and detailed, it features intense notes of black cherry, truffle, crushed stone and loam. The palate is quintessential Pomerol, structured like a typical Trotanoy with plenty of horsepower on the finish. There's a long, long road ahead for this wine. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
A very concentrated Trot with density and depth, the tannins spreading across the palate. Full and very intense. It goes on for minutes. Great depth. Another soulful wine from the Moueix family.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
Love the perfume and finesse here with fresh flowers, blackberries, crushed stones and cement. Cedar. Full and very long with tight and muscular tannins that go on for minutes. Tight and thoughtful. Soulful. Try after 2030.
About the Producer
Purchased by Jean-Pierre Moueix in 1953, Château Trotanoy has been considered one of the premier crus of Pomerol since the end of the eighteenth century. The soil of Château Trotanoy is a very dense mixture of clay and gravel which tends to solidify as it dries out after rain to an almost concrete-like hardness, hence the name “Trotanoy,” or, in other words, “too wearisome” to cultivate. The Trotanoy vineyard slopes gently to the west. The soil at the highest point of exposure contains a good proportion of gravel, becoming progressively more dominated by clay as the elevation declines. Under this clay is a subsoil of red gravel and an impermeable layer of hard, iron-rich soil known as “crasse de fer.” This fascinating soil diversity brings power, depth and complexity to the wine. Trotanoy is vinified in small concrete vats, while aging takes place in oak barrels. Trotanoy is a naturally profound, complex, richly-concentrated wine with outstanding aging potential. The wine possesses a deep color and a dense, powerful nose, repeated on the palate with the addition of creamy, dark chocolate notes, and a singular concentration of flavor owed to its very old vines.
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