Red Wines

wines

Another brilliant Pomerol in the vintage, the 2020 Château Montviel has a pure, medium to full-bodied, vibrant profile carrying darker, almost blue, iron-tinged fruits, lots of violet, floral, and chocolate nuances, fine tannins, and outstanding length. This classic 2020 brings lots of ripe, sexy fruit and texture yet stays balanced and seamless, with a real sense of elegance. Drink bottles over the coming 10-15 years. It’s every bit as good as the 2019.Jeb Dunnuck | 94 JDThe 2020 Montviel is exuberant and flashy to the core. A rush of back fruit, spice, leather, chocolate, tobacco, incense and sweet French oak races across the palate. This full-bodied Pomerol is not exactly subtle, but it sure is delicious.Vinous Media | 93 VMJuicy red with dark berry, chocolate, hazelnut, walnut and berry. Full and rather chunky. It’s a little old-school, but impressive. Needs time to soften and relax. Try after 2026.James Suckling | 93 JSRipe and fleshy, lots of tannins, salty with blackcurrant and black cherry and lots of mint and liquorice. A bold, savoury style, darkly fruited, clearly concentrated and intense but reigned in enough so that it’s not too much in any one direction. Has a certain streamlined finesse to it. Young still, this needs time as most Pomerols on clay will, but good energy and styling. Lashings of liquorice, slate and toast with a lifted finish.Decanter | 92 DECDeep purple-black colored, the 2020 Montviel needs a little swirling to unlock scents of stewed plums and baked blackberries, plus hints of garrigue, tilled soil and tobacco leaf with a hint of crushed rocks. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers pure, juicy black and blue fruits, supported by soft, rounded tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing with a red berry lift.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 89-91+ RP

The 2020 Château Clinet checks in as a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, brought up in 80% new French oak. It’s a rich, yet gorgeous wine with a wonderful sense of freshness in its ripe blue and black fruits as well as tobacco, chocolate, and damp earth. Full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and elegant on the palate, it has perfect tannins, a layered, elegant mouthfeel, and one hell of an impressive finish. One of the finest Pomerols in the vintage, it will benefit from just 3-5 years of bottle age and keep for two decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDWhat a beautiful young wine, showing so much finesse and tension, with ultra-fine tannins and subtle and long flavors and character. It’s medium-bodied with extremely silky tannins that grow on the palate to a seamless finish. Harmonious. Another fine Pomerol for the cellar. Drink after 2027.James Suckling | 98 JSThe 2020 Clinet is hugely impressive, as it was from barrel. Dark and imposing, with notable vibrancy, the 2020 offers up an exotic mélange of black cherry, gravel, incense, plum, game and licorice. I would give this a few years in bottle, as the tannins are pretty imposing. Cabernet Sauvignon is so distinctive here.Vinous Media | 95 VMDark and heady, smooth but still lean with a sense of seriousness with firm tannins that fill the mouth. Lovely high acidity offsets the powdery, chalky texture with perfumed blackberries and cherries alongside liquorice and cola touches. Rich and quite dense but with lovely persistence and energy.Decanter | 95 DECThe 2020 Clinet offers up aromas of minty cherries, blackberries and cassis mingled with hints of licorice, loamy soil and rose petals. Full-bodied, broad and rich, with a layered mid-palate underpinned by powdery tannins that assert themselves on the youthfully firm finish, it’s impressively balanced for a wine at 15% alcohol, but it remains a rather burly, powerful Clinet.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RPThis wine’s dense tannins and bold black fruits are balanced by its fine acidity and a fresh element that cuts through the dark chocolate and black plum flavors to give a fine lift to what will be an impressive wine as it matures. Wine Enthusiast | 94 WESports spicy toast and warmed fruitcake out front, backed by a solid core of steeped cherry and blackberry notes to match. This is all wrapped up with singed vanilla and sweet tobacco on the finish, along with a tug of warm earth. Shows solid range, if a bit reliant on the toast. A strong effort for the vintage. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2026 through 2036. 3,833 cases made, 594 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 93 WS

A juicy intensity with bright red fruits, delicate and alive in the glass - friendly but with a salty liquorice kick that gives it some seriousness. Lean and direct but polished and clean on the finish. A touch of lingering heat at the end but this has vibrancy and is well structured with clear bite and power.Decanter | 94 DECA full and juicy red with blackberry, black olive, dark chocolate, and hazelnut aromas and flavors. Creamy, round and deliciously textured. Not a big and powerful wine but very attractive now and for the future. Seductive in so many way. Merlot, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. Best after 2026.James Suckling | 94 JSDominant Merlot in the blend gives this wine both its richness and its smooth texture. Black fruits and generous acidity are sure to develop well. Drink this fine wine from 2026.Wine Enthusiast | 93 WEI loved the 2020 Château De Sales from barrel, and it’s showing beautifully from bottle. Sporting a deep purple hue as well as a ripe, sexy, medium to full-bodied style, it has ripe, supple tannins, a layered, balanced mouthfeel, and classic aromatics of ripe black cherries, plums, licorice, spring flowers, and damp earth. It’s another beautiful, layered, elegant Pomerol in the vintage that will benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age and drink brilliantly through 2040.Jeb Dunnuck | 92 JDAn attractive, elegantly fruit-driven Pomerol, the 2020 De Sales offers up aromas of sweet berries, dried herbs and spices, followed by a medium to full-bodied, supple and seamless palate. With a core of vibrant fruit and melting tannins, this is a success for this large estate, where Jean-Claude Berrouet consults.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RP

I continue to absolutely love the wines from this Pomerol château, and their Grand Vin always brings a richness and depth that makes it a joy to drink. Coming from a larger vineyard near Petrus, La Fleur Petrus, and Le Gay, the dense purple hue of the 2020 Château Gazin is followed by a rocking bouquet of ripe black cherries, currants, melted chocolate, roasted herbs, and earth. Full-bodied, deep, opulent, and concentrated, give this gorgeous 2020 4-6 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following 25+.Jeb Dunnuck | 96 JDLovely texture to this Pomerol. Fine velvety tannins with plum, walnut and crushed stone character. Savory finish. Needs time to soften. Very classy and structured, yet so refined. 91.6% merlot and 8.4% cabernet sauvignon. Try after 2025.James Suckling | 96 JSThe 2020 Gazin has a very alluring bouquet with pure blackberry, bilberry and pressed flower scents, nicely focused with beautifully integrated new oak. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, ripe and tensile, gentle grip with quite a complex, lightly spiced and persistent finish. This is a wonderful Pomerol that has the substance to repay long-term cellaring.Vinous Media | 94 VMSupple and juicy, but still quite tight in terms of texture. A little reserved perhaps, the coiled and muscular mid-palate stops some of the push from the fruit which is really well defined with a crystalline aspect to it. Real purity and freshness, tannins have an appealing grip with a salty, cola, liquorice, dark chocolate and coffee powder edge to them. Lots of nuance and complexity.Decanter | 94 DECThis wine is dark with dense tannins and a solid texture. Along with the richness, there is the potential of massive black fruit weight that will give a wine of power and concentration.Wine Enthusiast | 94 WEDeep purple-black colored, the 2020 Gazin rolls effortlessly out of the glass with upfront scents of baked black plums, stewed black cherries and mulberries, plus hints of spice cake, chocolate box and cracked black pepper. The medium to full-bodied palate has a solid backbone of firm, grainy tannins and plenty of freshness supporting the muscular black fruits, finishing savory.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92-94 RP

Wonderfully bright, floral aromas with so much violet character. Such purity and focus. Ethereal on the nose already. Full-bodied, but very polished and deep with finesse and beauty. Incredible structure that fills the mouth.James Suckling | 98-99 JSThe 2020 L’Eglise Clinet is a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The Merlot was picked between the 11th and the 14th of September, and the Cabernet Franc was picked on the 16th of September. It has an alcohol of 14.4% and is aging in French oak barrels, 80% new. Displaying and opaque purple-black color, it needs a bit of swirling to reveal a fascinating array of earthy notes—black truffles, charcoal, mossy tree bark and fallen leaves—over a profound core of preserved plums, blackberry preserves and violets, with a waft of tapenade. The medium to full-bodied palate has exquisitely ripe tannins and bold freshness supporting the seductively ripe, black fruit layers, finishing on a lingering fragrant earth note.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97-99 RPThe 2020 L’Eglise-Clinet is a towering wine. I am not sure what else to say. After having tasted hundreds of 2020s, L’Eglise-Clinet very clearly claims a stake for itself among the wines of the vintage. L’Eglise-Clinet can be a brute in its youth, but the 2020 is all finesse. Sweet red/purplish fruit, rose petal, blood orange and pomegranate are some of the nuances that emerge over time. Perhaps keeping the temperatures a bit cooler in fermentation explains the extraordinary finesse here. The 2020 simply can’t be denied.Vinous Media | 96-98 VMAlways up with the crème de la crème of the vintage, the 2020 Château L’Eglise Clinet is no exception. It boasts a rich, powerful, opulent style that packs loads of ripe black cherries as well as notes of chocolate, earth, tobacco, and graphite. Possessing the pure, elegant, more focused style of the vintage, it still has plenty of mid-palate depth, gorgeous tannins, and one heck of a great finish. This beauty is a thrill a minute and will not hit maturity for another 7-8 years, but it will be a 20-year wine.Jeb Dunnuck | 96-98 JD(Château L’Eglise-Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux, France, Red) Noémie Durantou has taken over from her late father Denis with this vintage, and has produced a L’Eglise Clinet that is dark ruby in colour, and needs time in the glass as it is built and muscular. You need a little patience for the cassis, bilberry and raspberry fruits to arrange, enjoy instead the silky, velvety texture that stops the tannins being too restrictive and allows the palate to slowly expand. Not as expressive as in some vintages, but still exudes quiet confidence. A yield of 42hl/ha. Harvest from September 8. (Drink between 2029-2050)Decanter | 96 DEC

The balance and energy to this is very impressive with blackberry, black-olive, tar and walnut character. It’s full, but very compact with superb tannin quality that is intense, yet so fine-grained, building layers on the palate. A subtle and structured young wine. It really goes on and on.James Suckling | 98-99 JSThe 2020 La Conseillante is a blend of 87% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc. Seventy percent of the wine is being aged in new French oak barriques, 27% in second-fill barrels and 3% in amphorae. The alcohol came in at 14% and the pH is 3.64. Deep purple-black colored, it sails gracefully out of the glass with vivacious notes of black raspberries, kirsch and redcurrant jelly, leading to suggestions of ripe, juicy blackberries, violets, star anise and iron ore with a faint waft of dried mint. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in elegance, delivering a quiet intensity of pure, energetic red and black berry layers with gorgeous floral and mineral sparks, framed by perfectly ripe, finely pixilated tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length and the most breathtaking perfume. Simply mind-blowing.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97-99 RPThe 2020 Château La Conseillante is a blend of 87% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc that saw the Merlot brought in between September 4 and 17 and the Cabernet Franc from the 21st to the 30th of September. Still resting in 70% new barrels, it’s a juicy, vibrant Pomerol in every sense and has a vivid purple color to go with a great nose of blueberries, cassis, spring flowers, and violets. Showing the vintage’s rich, concentrated, yet also pure and straight style, this beauty is full-bodied, has flawless balance, and terrific tannins. It’s another gorgeous wine from Marielle Cazaux that will require a solid decade of bottle age, but it will see its 30th birthday in fine form.Jeb Dunnuck | 96-98 JD(Château La Conseillante, Pomerol, Bordeaux, France, Red) There are some beautifully fragrant floral aromatics here with concentration through the mid palate and effortless balance. A little more width and opulence in the 2019 perhaps, but here you get precision and purity, and a feeling of 2010 levels of concentration. An elegant 2020, bright, confident, bursting with life. 70% new oak. A yield of 39hl/ha. 3.67pH. Gravel and clay soils, and to keep freshness they left crop cover on the old vines but on the young ploughed it into the soil so as not to have too much competition for the water. Lowered canopy also but kept shade and leaves around the bunches to protect from the sun. Picked early morning from 7am to noon, harvest of Merlot September 4 to 17, and the Cabernet Franc on September 21 and 30. (Drink between 2027-2043)Decanter | 96 DECThe 2020 La Conseillante is a supremely elegant, restrained wine that shows the continued move toward finesse here. Silky and gracious, it’s wonderfully classy from start to finish. Lavender, mint, spice and mocha complement the purplish berry fruit nicely, all framed by bright saline and mineral notes that lend energy. Today, the 2020 is quite reserved, with less opulence than some previous vintages. It’s the sort of wine that is shy in its youth and then explodes with years in bottle. Yields were just under 40 hectoliters per hectare, very much in line with years like 2016, for example. Harvest took place September 4–19 for the Merlot and 21–30 for the Franc, more or less in line with what has become the norm of late. As usual, the malos were done in steel. Aging is 70% new oak, 27% once-used barrels and 3% amphora. It’s a brilliant effort from Technical Director Marielle Cazaux and her team.Vinous Media | 94-97 VMThe wine is dense but the tannins are velvety. The combination gives a wine with obvious power and concentration wrapped in fruit that is perfumed, ripe and shot through with terrific acidity. In the end, those tannins will give the essential structure for long-term aging.Wine Enthusiast | 94-96 WE

Blackcurrant, milk chocolate and floral scents - lovely expression, alive and forward. Stylish and compelling, this hits the mark straight away, bold and tangy, with a sharpness to the fruit profile from high acidity. Tannins give a layered effect with detail and precision and you can feel the sculpting. Juicy and alive, there’s great energy and charm, upfront and forward, shining out of the glass. Generous and almost sweet but then straightens and tightens on the finish, giving a tongue scraping clean element with salty, minerality, liquorice and oak spice. The 2019 is more cool and classic, but this will appeal to all. Showcases the talent and hardwork done at the estate for the past 15 years.Decanter | 94 DECThe 2020 La Pointe has a well-defined, quite mineral-driven bouquet that opens nicely in the glass. Black cherries, raspberry and subtle violet scents, gaining intensity with aeration. The bottle opened at the château with Eric Monneret shows more graphite/pencil lead elements. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, linear in style, fresh with a vibrant saline finish. I appreciate the manner in which it fans out. Subtle but satisfying, this is a sophisticated Pomerol that adroitly expresses its sense of place.Vinous Media | 93 VMThis is spiced and toasty with notes of blackcurrants, plums, roasted spices, cedar, violets and grilled herbs. Full-bodied with plush, velvety tannins and a rich and succulent dark fruit character. Firm finish with hints of chocolate and wet stones. Try after 2024.James Suckling | 93 JSMassive and Merlot-dominated this wine shows the grape both in its seductively ripe aspect as well as the cool edge that comes from the Pomerol vineyards. The wine should develop slowly but with fine precision.Wine Enthusiast | 92 WEDeep purple-black in color, the 2020 La Pointe offers up notes of baked black and red plums, cherry preserves and fresh blackberries, plus wafts of crushed rocks, underbrush and black truffles. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock-full of ripe black fruit flavors, supported by ripe, rounded tannins and a lively backbone, finishing long and earthy.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91-93 RPA typical 2020 Pomerol, this is fleshy and forward, with crowd-pleasing plum and raspberry reduction notes lined with licorice and backed by warmed earth and sweet tobacco. This has just enough energy to carry it through the finish. A well-done wine. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2031. 5,833 cases made.Wine Spectator | 91 WSLots of ripe red plums, chocolate, damp earth, and spicy, floral notes emerge from the 2020 Château La Pointe, a medium to full-bodied, round, supple, nicely concentrated Pomerol. With ripe tannins, a good sense of freshness, and terrific balance, it’s going to offer plenty of pleasure over the coming 10-15 years.Jeb Dunnuck | 91 JD

Lots of black olive with dark fruit and sandalwood on the nose. Full-bodied with layers of velvety and soft tannins, yet they stay vibrant and focused. Very integrated palate. Flavorful at the end. Drink after 2026.James Suckling | 96 JSThe 2020 Rouget is a potent, opulent Pomerol. Espresso, bittersweet chocolate, licorice, leather, incense, tobacco and blackberry jam race across the palate. This sumptuous, unabashedly opulent Pomerol has a ton to offer, but it is very much on the large side.Vinous Media | 94 VMHeady and concentrated, a deep dark core of blackcurrant and black cherry fruits. Vibrant acidity keeps things lifted and although the muscular tannins coat the mouth giving a soft grip there is nice energy here with a sleek handle on the cool blue fruits, acidity and gorgeous florality. Feels complete, not charming so much right now, but certainly evocative as it’s quite forward and confident with strong tobacco, liquorice and clove spice giving the oak on the finish. One to wait for.Decanter | 93 DECThe 2020 Rouget is another rich, demonstrative wine from this estate situated on the edge of the Pomerol plateau. Offering up aromas of blackberries, cherries and baking chocolate framed by a lavish application of creamy new oak, it’s medium to full-bodied, broad and enveloping, with a ripe core of fruit, powdery tannins and an expansive, vanillin-inflected finish. With a lighter touch in élevage and efforts to pursue more vibrant flavors, it’s clear that this estate could easily score even higher.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92 RPThe 2020 Château Rouget showed nicely, with plenty of ripe black cherries, melted chocolate, tobacco, and a hint of iron in its medium to full-bodied, richer, tannic profile. While it’s not the most elegant wine out there, it has impressive depth of fruit, sound structure, and a great finish. Tasted twice.Jeb Dunnuck | 91+ JD