Madiran rocks, but I think of Brumont's stuff I will concentrate on Bouscassé in the future:
Montus Cuvée Prestige Madiran 1998 smells of oak and liqueur (despite only 12,5% abv) - yet even all the spoofulation can't disguise all the wonderful Tannatiness underneath. A spectacular waste of superb fruit.
I opened Montus 1998 to compare. This isn't offensively oaky, but seems soft and like the character of Tannat has been tamed. But why should one tame the character of a grape? The palate has some nice structure, but it does seem a bit inky and soft (Madiran? ... soft? ... oh dear!). This is a nice drink as it has attractive savouryness and structure and isn't sweet and jammy but something has been done to it that it just doesn't taste like Madiran anymore. Weird.
-O-