Winemaker Notes
Chateau Bellegrave is round, concentrated, and well-balanced with an impressive freshness on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Plenty of grip, you are taken straight into Pauillac in the first few beats of this wine, with its cassis and bilberry fruits, hawthorn and eucalyptus juice and spice, and the powerful tannins that are the mark of the vintage up here. These are concentrated fruits, but overall there is also a sense of uplift and forward motion. Great stuff.
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James Suckling
Fragrant and complex nose of blackberries, cloves, pine cones and walnuts. It’s medium-bodied, elegant and refined, with firm, silky tannins. Beautifully integrated and balanced.
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Wine Enthusiast
One of the rare estates in Pauillac that is not a classed growth, the wine is solid, still young. Its black-currant fruits and tannins are coming together along with the rich spice of wood aging. The wine is set for some serious aging. Drink from 2026.
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Wine Spectator
- Soft-edged, though there's a buried iron note just underneath a wave of lovely cassis, plum sauce and black cherry reduction. This also shows sweet tobacco and chestnut accents along the way. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Chateau Bellegrave is well-built and ready for action. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows aromas and flavors of black fruits and dried earthy notes. Enjoy it with a perfectly-grilled ribeye. (Tasted: February 23, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.