Winemaker Notes
Blend: 61% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
This estate continues to produce brilliant wines, and their 2020 Château Bouscaut is no exception. Exhibiting a deep ruby/purple hue as well as a great nose of red and black currants, leafy herbs, scorched earth, and lead pencil shavings, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a round, layered, elegant mouthfeel, beautiful mid-palate depth, and a great finish. Count me impressed. It will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and cruise for upwards of two decades.
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Wine Enthusiast
Crisp and fresh, full of tight acidity and lemon flavors, the wine also has an important mineral texture that will give it structure and shape as it matures.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
James Suckling
A tight yet juicy young red with blackberry, raw dark mushroom and bark aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied with a dense center palate and solid tannins. 61% merlot, 33% cabernet sauvignon and 6% malbec. Give it three to four year to open up. Try after 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 61% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Malbec, the 2020 Bouscaut has a deep purple-black color and notes of warm cassis, stewed black plums and black cherry pie, followed by hints of tar, licorice and Indian spices. The medium to full-bodied palate is filled with juicy black fruits and ripe, rounded tannins, backed up by a lively backbone, finishing long and spicy.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Wine Spectator
Solid, with a dark and winey core of black currant and dark plum fruit enlivened with a bramble hint, while black licorice and dark tobacco fill in as well. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Drink now through 2032.
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.
Recognized for its superior reds as well as whites, Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank claims classified growths for both—making it quite unique in comparison to its neighboring Médoc properties.
Pessac’s Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth located outside of the Médoc, is said to have been the first to conceptualize fine red wine in Bordeaux back in the late 1600s. The estate, along with its high-esteemed neighbors, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pique-Caillou and Chateau Pape-Clément are today all but enveloped by the city of Bordeaux. The rest of the vineyards of Pessac-Léognan are in clearings of heavily forested area or abutting dense suburbs.
Arid sand and gravel on top of clay and limestone make the area unique and conducive to growing Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc as well as the grapes in the usual Left Bank red recipe: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and miniscule percentages of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
The best reds will show great force and finesse with inky blue and black fruit, mushroom, forest, tobacco, iodine and a smooth and intriguing texture.
Its best whites show complexity, longevity and no lack of exotic twists on citrus, tropical and stone fruit with pronounced floral and spice characteristics.