Winemaker Notes
A strong, violet-purple color in appearance. Aromas of black fruits, blackcurrants and blackberries with delicate secondary notes of licorice, cashew, and spices. On the palate, it opens with velvety, tender, and very fine tannins. It has generous structure and persistent flavors, with an exceptionally long and intense finish.
Blend: 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Château Saint-Pierre (Saint-Julien) looks to be beautiful, with a fresher, focused, yet still powerful style that fits nicely into the vintage. Lots of black and blue fruits, crushed stone, and graphite define the nose, and it's full-bodied, with a great mid-palate, ripe yet building tannins, and a great finish. It's going to need time to integrate its oak, but the purity of fruit, quality of the tannins, and balance are all spot on. Tasted twice with consistent notes.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 -
James Suckling
A firm, very structured wine from here, with intense tannins that are very polished and long. Pure fruit. One of the best in a long time.
Barrel Sample: 95-96
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep purple-black in color, the 2020 Saint-Pierre bursts with baked blackberries, stewed plums and cassis, followed by hints of dried mint, chocolate box and tapenade with a waft of pencil lead. The medium-bodied palate is elegantly styled with impressive freshness and ripe, fine-grained tannins supporting the energetic black fruits, finishing on a lingering fragrant earth note. The blend is 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc, aging for around 14 months in French oak barrels, 50% new. The alcohol is 13.3%.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 -
Decanter
This is excellent, really the most gorgeous balance of power, with dark blueberry juicy fruits and lots of liquorice. Excellent balance and a seductive overall frame. Great stuff - the tannins are pretty fierce though, needs time, will reward ageing.
Barrel Sample: 94 -
Wine Enthusiast
This wine is dark, with black plum and licorice flavors that suggest some heavy extraction during fermentation. As the fruit with its spicy and juicy character pulls forward, the wine will reveal a sense of concentration and power.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Wine Spectator
A plush, broad, toasty style, with warmed plum sauce and steeped blackberry notes forming the core, while sweet tobacco, ganache and dark earth hints fill in behind. A lovely sanguine thread adds a mouthwatering aspect to the finish as the fruit plays out. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
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.
An icon of balance and tradition, St. Julien boasts the highest proportion of classed growths in the Médoc. What it lacks in any first growths, it makes up in the rest: five amazing second growth chateaux, two superb third growths and four well-reputed fourth growths. While the actual class rankings set in 1855 (first, second, and so on the fifth) today do not necessarily indicate a score of quality, the classification system is important to understand in the context of Bordeaux history. Today rivalry among the classed chateaux only serves to elevate the appellation overall.
One of its best historically, the estate of Leoville, was the largest in the Médoc in the 18th century, before it was divided into the three second growths known today as Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Léoville-Barton. Located in the north section, these are stone’s throw from Chateau Latour in Pauillac and share much in common with that well-esteemed estate.
The relatively homogeneous gravelly and rocky top soil on top of clay-limestone subsoil is broken only by a narrow strip of bank on either side of the “jalle,” or stream, that bisects the zone and flows into the Gironde.
St. Julien wines are for those wanting subtlety, balance and consistency in their Bordeaux. Rewarding and persistent, the best among these Bordeaux Blends are full of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco and licorice. They are intense and complex and finish with fine, velvety tannins.