Chateau Gruaud Larose 2020

DECANTER: "Detailed and delicate, this has a seductive charm to it, slowly displaying scented blueberries and raspberries, before layers of salty minerality, liquorice, and cooling blue fruits come into play as well as tobacco and liquorice adding a savoury touch. It’s not immediately upfront - more calm and collected, slowly growing in stature and presence. Tannins are fine but mouthcoating, giving the structure, this isn't a light wine, but it's supremely elegant and excellently textured. Impressive complexity and drama here, still very serious but it's sublime too. A luminous wine I'd love to own."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "A serious, more obviously structured effort than the suave 2019, the 2020 Gruaud Larose opens in the glass with aromas of blackcurrants and blackberries mingled with subtle hints of burning embers, pencil shavings and violets framed by a deft touch of classy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with rich, powdery tannins and vibrant fruit flavors, it concludes with an impressively penetrating finish. However, it appears likely to require patience."

JAMES SUCKLING: "A lovely softness and texture to this wine with a medium to full body, plenty of fruit and fine velvety tannins. It’s lovely to taste now and will age beautifully. Really seductive. Hard not to drink now but one for the cellar. Best to try after 2025."

JEB DUNNUCK: "Coming from the talented Virginie Salette (the head winemaker since 2017) and tiny yields of 32 hectoliters per hectare, the 2020 Château Gruaud Larose is 79% Cabernet, 14% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc, which continues the trend at this estate toward more and more Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. Beautifully done, with a terrific sense of finesse, it offers a great nose of both red and black fruit as well as leafy tobacco, spring flowers, licorice, and spicy oak. Pure, medium to full-bodied, and wonderfully balanced, with fine tannins, it shows the focused, inward, almost understated style of the vintage without any rusticity or austerity. It needs a solid 7-8 years of bottle age, if not a decade, and is going to be very long-lived. Bravo."

LISA PERROTTI-BROWN: "The opaque purple-black colored 2020 Gruaud Larose comes bounding out of the glass with exuberant notes of crushed black cherries, juicy blackberries, and fresh black currants, followed by hints of sassafras, dark chocolate, and violets. Medium-bodied, the palate is very tightly coiled at this nascent stage, featuring firm, ripe, grainy tannins, and beautiful freshness to support the bright black berry and floral layers, finishing long and fragrant."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Richly colored, the wine kicks off with an intense display of flowers, with additional nuances of tobacco leaf, earth, currants, black cherries, spice and cigar box. The wine is silky, vibrant, sensuous and long with layers of ripe, sweet, vibrant red and black fruits that build in intensity. There is a beautiful purity to the fruit and symmetry on the palate, with a sexy endnote. Drink from 2026-2055."

WINE SPECTATOR: "Rock-solid, with a core of dark plum, boysenberry and blackberry compote flavors held together with cedar, savory, tobacco and singed apple wood notes that add texture and energy through the finish. Built for the cellar. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2030 through 2040. "

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Deep purple-crimson hue. Aromatically ripe but still fairly tight and closed. Hint of blueberry. As with 2019, lovely texture and tannins but with a more voluptuous feel. Real density on the palate, the tannins extremely refined. Fresh and long on the finish. Modern and gourmand."

FALSTAFF: "Dunkles Rubingranat, violette Reflexe, opaker Kern, zarte Randaufhellung. Reife Herzkirschen, feine Pflaumenfrucht, zart nach Edelholz, kandierte Orangenzesten sind unterlegt. Mittlere Komplexität, rote Kirschen, präsente Tannine, mineralisch im Abgang, zart blättriger Nachhall, braucht noch seine Zeit. (2025–2055)"