Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The finest wine I've tasted from this estate, the 2020 Château Bellefont-Belcier is an incredibly gorgeous blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and 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.
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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.
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Decanter
A vivid and vibrant color in the glass and fruitiness on the palate. This has crisp and crunchy blackcurrant and plum fruit - fragrant and quite potent but with a lovely smooth and ripe texture where the tannins support rather than overwhelm the fruit and this stays the right side of being too dry in the mouth. It's on the richer side, and is still extremely youthful and forward, but I like the styling and there is lots of freshness which keeps the palate wide and open. Lots of glamour on show with a sleekness to the overall impression. Confident winemaking.
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Robert Parker's 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.
Rating: 94+
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.