Weekly Tasting Report (Apr 19-25, 2021): Bordeaux 2020 a ‘merlot vintage’, plus Chile, Champagne, Italy, and China

My reporting on Bordeaux 2020 comprises the highlights of what JamesSuckling.com rated last week and it has some real insights on who did the best in France’s premier wine region. In addition, we have ratings for Dom Perignon’s latest releases as well as reviews from hundreds of wines from Chile and dozens from Italy’s Alto Adige and Trentino as well as Australia, California, and China.

I have rated more than 600 wines from the 2020 vintage in Bordeaux and I am impressed with the overall quality. I had heard before I started tasting barrel samples that the vintage was heterogenous, but 90% of the wines I have reviewed show an outstanding quality level from first growths to petit chateaux, even from simple appellations such as Bordeaux or Bordeaux Superior.

It seems to be a merlot vintage to me, if I take into consideration the superb quality of wines made in appellations on the Right Bank such as Pomerol and St.-Emilion as well as more merlot-focused districts such as Margaux in the Medoc. I have done about 20 Tasting Interviews with wine producers and winemakers and I am impressed with how good their merlots are. This can certainly be understood if you look at the weather reports for 2020 - most of the merlot was harvested before intermittent rain fell in Bordeaux from about mid-September and continued until the end of the harvest.

“I have to say it is a merlot year,” said consulting enologist Hubert de Bouard, who also owns the famous St.-Emilion winery Chateau Angelus. “The merlot is great in the Medoc too.” See our conversation in the video on the right.

Some say that it was difficult getting their cabernet sauvignons ripe, though I didn’t sense any green character in wines from the Medoc for the most part. This said, most of the reds from the Medoc are lower in alcohol in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2018, a result of the wet weather during the second part of the harvest there. This reminds me of the 1998 vintage when the Right Bank and Pessac-Leognan made great wines because chateaux there harvested before the rains arrived on September 29 (my birthday, which is why I remember this story!) and most Medoc wines were diluted from the precipitation.

This doesn't mean that great cabernet sauvignon-based wines were not made in 2020 or that the Medoc did not make terrific young wines."All the great cabernet was in already before the rain so it was not an issue,” said Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy of Chateau Mouton Rothschild today during a Zoom interview. I found his wines, whose ratings will be posted next week, to show pristine purity of fruit and focus with great tannin quality derived from the fruit. “At Mouton, everything was already picked by September 24 when the rain came."

In this report alone some great bottles are rated including the Ducru-Beaucaillou 2020 that showed “ethereal” quality and lots of pure cabernet character with black currants and flowers. But it was less powerful than 2019 and 2018. Owner Bruno Borie told me by Zoom that his 2020 Ducru was one of the best he has made but admitted it was more refined and structured than other bottlings. He describes his wine as “academical” instead of classical. I guess “textbook” Bordeaux would be another way to describe it. He said a lot of work went into making his 2020 because of the tricky grape growing conditions and wet weather in the later part of the harvest.

Smaller berry sizes of the cabernet sauvignon apparently helped by reducing the possibility of dilution during the wet weather at the picking. And it gave the wines excellent tannin structure from the thick skins. All the winemakers I spoke to were careful with their extractions during the fermentation and maceration as well as with press wines.

A conversation with Edouard Moueix last night reinforced my thoughts about how great terroirs really came into play in 2020 to make great wines. “It's not the climate that defines the quality of the vintage,” said Moueix, who made some stunning 2020 wines including Trotanoy, La Fleur Petrus and Hosanna. “There are some beautiful wines, which is great. But there are beautiful wines in beautiful appellations with soils that can self-manage those strong shifts between very dry period and humid [wet] periods.”

He said that limestone such as in his vineyards in St.-Emilion and clay and gravel in Pomerol’s plateau were “clearly at an advantage.” He said that sandy soils were at a disadvantage because they could not retain much water from the wet winter and spring to provide moisture to the vines during the extremely dry summer. Rains did fall for a short period in August but it was short and intense and was not absorbed into the soils.

Moueix added that in the best soils the growth of the vineyards and their leaf canopies were “magnificent.” I could certainly say that same thing about his top wines! Another factor he described for those three vineyards in Pomerol, which are on mostly clay soils, was the preponderance of old vines. Many age back to the 1950s. These old vines were less affected by the drought conditions in the summer. In fact, he said that they flourished.

“It’s the old vines,” he said. “The old vines had a slightly higher production than usual [in 2020] … It’s that character of old vines that personally I love.”

He’s also a great fan of the 2020 vintage like every producer I spoked to from Bordeaux so far. “The great thing is that we managed to harvest ripe fruits with freshness and I think that this is something that makes this vintage interesting,” he said. “It is a traditional vintage in the sense that the wines are built around the tannin structure. And those who took the right decision and harvest ripe tannins have produced some beautiful wines … we are in front of a solar vintage [shows the sun and dryness] but it doesn’t taste like it and they will age very well.”

In the end, he said the balance of the 2020s is better than the 2018s but the 2018s are sexier in style. He said that 2020 will be more for your cellar in the long term with its excellent aging potential.

I also found a couple of Champagnes that you are not going to want to miss for your cellar. They included the Dom Pérignon Champagne Rosé Vintage 2008 and the Dom Pérignon Champagne P2 2003. The DP rosé is phenomenal, showing fantastic clarity and structure. I spoke with DP winemaker Vincent Chaperon and he said that they used slightly more pinot noir and that the 2008 showed incredible structure. I was also impressed with the DP P2 2003, which showed solid structure and freshness despite coming from such a ripe vintage. Chaperon said that the extended aging in the cellar, a large part with the bottles standing on end, gave the extra freshness and vivacity to the wine.

The new release of Dom Pérignon Champagne – the 2012 – shows lots of energy and finesse by comparison. The vintage produced an extremely balanced and subtle wine with lots of character and a wonderful drinkability. It reminds me of a slightly drier 2006.

Our continued tastings of Chilean wines also highlight drinkability and great value as always. This report includes a lot of wines from Aconcagua, and the northern region from Santiago continues to make excellent pinot noir, syrah and chardonnay. And many are using organic viticultural methods.

Wine producers in Italy’s Alto Adige and Trentino, the regions Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was focusing on tasting last week, are equally concerned with maintaining the quality of their soils and environment and they make pure and vivid whites and reds. Stuart’s favorite was the Manzoni Bianco Vigneti delle Dolomiti Fontanasanta, a single vineyard white from the Foradori family in Trentino, made in cement tanks and acacia barrels. It comes from biodynamic vineyards that are Demeter certified. He calls it “maybe the greatest natural white wine I have ever tasted.”

Our writer and taster in Beijing, Zekun Shuai also found some impressive wines from producers in China and rated a dozen wines 90 points or more. The quality continues to improve as always as producers make more balanced and real wines.

Real wine is an Australian theme I always talk about. I even made time last week to fit in a couple of bottles from a long-time favorite from Yarra Valley, Mayer. And his 2020 pinot noir Dr. Mayer and syrah were excellent quality. They are very delicate and vivid and wonderfully drinkable.

It was a great week to taste wines. I hope you enjoy our list.

- James Suckling, editor

The list of wines below are bottles tasted and rated in the previous week by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet in the market, but entering soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports. 

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score, and alphabetically by winery name, and can search for specific wines in the search bar. 

To find the Bordeaux 2020 en primeur notes, for example, sort by country and scroll down to ‘France’.