Winemaker Notes
The wine presents attractive black cherry and griddled hedgerow notes with a soft, diffuse warmth, layered with coffee grounds and hints of black pepper, while the palate mirrors the nose with scented black fruits accented by tobacco, graphite, pencil shavings, and peppery spice, offering good density and a gentle, silky finish, and it pairs beautifully with meat dishes such as veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game, and chicken, whether roasted, braised, stewed, or grilled.
Blend: 64% Cabernet, Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Perfumed with currant, crushed stone, and minerals. Graphite, too. Medium-bodied, very fine and racy. Lead pencil. Very integrated. Needs time to open and show its true self. Sweet tobacco at the end. 61% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc and 33% merlot. Better after 2028.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Fragrant black currants give a classic wine that shines with the Cabernet Sauvignon. Its density comes from concentration, offering the potential of density without weight. The wine will age well.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Jeb Dunnuck
I always love this wine. While it never has the regal elegance of the Leoville Las Case, it always brings beautiful depth and richness. The 2020 Clos Du Marquis is no exception and is a concentrated, medium to full-bodied Saint-Julien delivering lots of ripe tobacco, graphite, and crushed stone aromatics, a great mid-palate, fine tannins, and a terrific core of bright cherry and darker currant fruits. A terrific wine, it will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and cruise over the following two decades.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Clos du Marquis wafts from the glass with aromas of rich berries, cherries, orange zest, pencil shavings and crushed mint. Medium to full-bodied, rich and velvety, with a sweet core of fruit, lively acids and powdery tannins that assert themselves on the youthfully firm finish, it's a serious wine that will require and reward patience. Best After 2027 Rating : 93+
-
Wine Spectator
This is pure St.-Julien through and through, with a core of cassis and plum fruit laced with a cool cast iron note, while cedar, anise and savory nuances chime in the background. An understated style. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
-
Decanter
This has the most gorgeous savoury fruit edge, a brilliant Marquis with a sappy chalky quality, concentrated and intense but still keeps the St-Julien balance. 40% new oak.
Barrel Sample: 92
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.