Chateau Bellevue Mondotte 2020

JAMES SUCKLING: "A linear and very compacted Bellevue with blackberries, blueberries and chocolate. Full and tight with racy tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Racy and focused. 100% merlot. Give this until 2028."

JEB DUNNUCK: "The 2020 Bellevue Mondotte is another powerhouse from the team at Pavie. All Merlot from the upper plateau above Château Pavie (the soils here contain a touch more clay), this full-bodied, deep, concentrated 2020 has a tight, unevolved bouquet of darker raspberries, cassis, truffly earth, and chocolate. Balanced, structured, and incredibly pure, it's mostly potential at this point and needs to be forgotten for 5-6 years."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "The 2020 Bellevue Mondotte is made from 100% Merlot, with an alcohol of 14.92% and a pH of 3.54. It is aging in French oak barriques, 90% new. Displaying an opaque purple-black color, it sashays out of the glass with flamboyant notes of plum preserves, blackberry compote and blueberry pie, plus hints of hoisin, Chinese five spice and camphor with a touch of dried rose petals. The concentrated, seductive, full-bodied palate delivers layer upon layer of black and blue fruit preserves, accented by exotic spices and supported with firm, ripe, rounded tannins plus fantastic freshness. The finish is epically long and achingly fragrant. Wow!"

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Produced from 100% old vine Merlot, the black, and purple color alone tells you this is going to offer a deep, tasting experience. The wine is intense, full-bodied, deep, long, and opulent, providing seamless layers of chocolate-covered blackberries, black cherries, plums, and espresso. Yet, with all this depth of flavor, everything is balanced, harmonious, long, and hedonistic. The finish offers to lift, purity, and velvet-textured tannins that coat your palate stains your teeth, and doesn't relinquish their hold on you for more than 50 seconds, leaving you with waves of rich plums, and black cherries with tones of crushed rocks, and stones in the endnote. However, it is not easy to find as only 350 cases, give or take were produced. Drink from 2027-2055."

FALSTAFF: "Tiefdunkles Rubingranat, opaker Kern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Süße Waldbeeren, schwarze Herzkirschen, zart nach Nougat, frische Orangenzesten, etwas Vanille. Engmaschig, saftig, dunkle Waldbeeren, feine, integrierte Tannine, mineralisch und anhaftend, Gewürze im Nachhall, sehr gute Länge, sicheres Reifepotenzial."

DECANTER: "Quite heady nose full of fleshy and fragrant plum jam. Unctuous and bright on the palate, lifted and lively, I love the hint of sweetness alongside wet stone, liquorice and a sharp, almost bitter black chocolate note. A lovely gentle elegance and sense of refinement. Plush tannins give the weight, density and structure, kept lifted by the acidity and finishing with a salty, minerality."