At R365, Du Retout is quickly becoming a go-to option at the office. It’s sweet fruited with crunchy tannins and a classically dry palate that leaves you refreshed. Fourcas Dupré is a beautiful discovery from the Médoc at well below R500, showing great clarity of fruit, beautiful weight and that hallmark 2020 freshness – delicious!
There are plenty of Wine Cellar favourites to choose from. Grand Mayne (94 NM) has an aniseed, spice-tinged finish that adds complexity to this Saint-Émilion, which has to be one of the most exciting wines in the region. Staying on the Right Bank, Laroque (96 AG) is a tremendous wine and continues to impress with its old vine Merlot. Grand-Puy-Lacoste (96 NM, 96 JS) has striking parallels to the superb 2016 – it’s complex and persistent with that signature graphite finish. Pichon Lalande (98 NM) 2020 is among the finest in recent vintages, and ‘when it grows up, it will be challenging First Growths,’ asserts Neal Martin.
2020 produced a slew of ‘perfect’ wines, including Montrose (100 WA), Figeac (100 JS), La Mission Haut-Brion (100 WA), Les Carmes Haut-Brion (100 AG), Smith Haut Lafitte (100 JD), and Troplong-Mondot (100 DEC). A number of others flirt with triple digits, such as Angélus (99 JS, 99 WE); Cos d’Estournel, in a specially engraved bottle (99 DEC, 99 JD); l’Eglise-Clinet (98 NM); Palmer (99 DEC); Pichon Lalande (98 NM); and Pontet-Canet (99 JS).
View all of our 2020s here. And for our full Bordeaux selection, spanning more than 100 wines with vintages back to the ‘90s, see here.
