Chateau Bellefont Belcier 2020

JEB DUNNUCK: "The finest wine I've tasted from this estate, the 2020 Château Bellefont-Belcier is an incredibly gorgeous blend of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep ruby/purple-hued, it offers a great nose of cassis, ripe black cherries, camphor, dried flowers, cedar, and forest floor. Bringing gorgeous richness, it nevertheless stays flawlessly balanced, with ultra-fine tannins and a great finish. The purity of fruit here is just about off the charts. While it already offers pleasure, it's going to benefit from short-term cellaring and have 20-25 years of prime drinking. This estate uses a five-day cold soak and fermentation, all in concrete, spanning 25 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel (four months on lees), and the wine spends 18 months in 30% new French oak, with the balance in once- and twice-used barrels. Yields in 2020 were also reasonable at 34 hectoliters per hectare."

JAMES SUCKLING: "Fascinating aromas of plums, peaches, lavender, violets, and other flowers. Hints of fresh herbs, too. So complex. Full-bodied yet so elegant and polished with a curated and focused palate. Hints of chocolate at the end. It’s so subtle and complex. Weightless on the palate. About 30% was aged in 30 hectoliter casks. 72% merlot, 18% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon."

DECANTER: "Crushed herb and tobacco leaf along with red berry fruit enchant. Very pure and fresh, indeed gaining in coolness, with more cool blue fruit than either the 2018 or 2019, even if the alcohol level is the same. 30% new oak for ageing, plus 20% in ovoid wooden vats of 40-hectolitres, accentuating fruit purity. 'Our most precise vintage so far,' winemaking director, Jean-Christophe Meyrou, told me two years ago when tasting from barrel. It shines from bottle, but needs a few more years to enter a proper drinking window. The pH is always around 3.62."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "The oceanic influences are what you initially find before moving on to all the flowers, smoke, and red fruits The wine is fresh, vibrant, elegant and refined. The red fruits show purity with a salty edge on the palate. There is length and precision here that builds and lingers. Drink from 2025-2050."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "The 2020 Bellefont Belcier is a terrific follow up to the excellent 2019. Wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, licorice, bay leaf and spices, it's medium to full-bodied, seamless and refined, with lovely depth at the core, vibrant acids and a long, chalky finish. It's great to see one of Saint-Émilion's sleeping giants awakening."

WEINWISSER: "70 % Merlot, 25 % Cabernet Franc, 5 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 37 hl/ha, 14.5 vol% Alkohol, pH 3.65, Produktion 50'000 Flaschen. Purpur mit dichter Mitte und rubinrotem Rand. Komplexes Bouquet mit verführerischem Veilchenparfüm, dahinter reife Brombeeren, Schattenmorellensaft und Lakritze. Am sublimen Gaumen mit seidiger Textur, stützendes Tanningerüst, vibrierende Rasse und athletischer Körper, der an einen 800m Läufer erinnert. Im gebündelten Finale bleibt der St. Emilion elegant, rotbeerige Konturen, heller Tabak und Finesse Pur. Diese Delikatesse weiß heuer zu überzeugen, so gut wie schon lange nicht mehr!"

FALSTAFF: "Tiefdunkles Rubingranat, opaker Kern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Zarte Edelholzwürze, Nuancen von roten und schwarzen Waldbeeren, ein Hauch von Gewürznelken und Kadamom, tabakiger Anklang. Saftig, elegant, feine Süße im Kern, reife Tannine, saliner Touch, mineralisch im Abgang, ein Hauch von Nougat, bleibt haften, gutes Entwicklungspotenzial."