Château Cantemerle 2020

Critic scores

• Wine Enthusiast95
• James Suckling94
• Decanter93
• Wine Advocate92
• Jeb Dunnuck91

The 2020 vintage in Haut-Médoc

Vintage benchmark: 94/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: An early, hot year, with a harvest under pressure: a dense, juicy classic, ripe without heaviness.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Haut-Médoc. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

"A beguiling nose, constantly evolving, which offers aromas that change from one moment to the next: deep and ripe fruits, acacia bark, scents of the woods, these are only pure and authentic aromas. Fresh and harmonious on the palate, with a beautiful concentration of perfectly ripe fruit and elegant tannins." - Le Figaro Vin

Blend of the 2020 vintage

Cabernet-sauvignon(58%), Cabernet franc(29%), Merlot(29%), Petit verdot(6%)

Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2020 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot.

Figures from the 2020 sheet

• 40 yrsVine age
• 400,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Wood, stainless steel and cement tanks

Ageing

12 months in French oak barrels, 40% of which are new

Terroir

The soil at Cantemerle is siliceous gravel. This gravel, the product of the ancient erosion of the Pyrenees by the Garonne, is one of the essential elements of a quality terroir. It makes for poor soils, and the vine must struggle if it is to produce concentrated grapes. These soils of sand and pebbles are also very free-draining and play an active part in ripening the grapes, since they reflect the sun's rays and retain at night the heat accumulated during the day. As they age, the vines send their roots deeper into the soil and express more fully the typicity of the terroir that carries them.