The 2020 vintage in Napa Valley
Vintage benchmark: 80/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)
Vintage character: The Glass Fire struck in the middle of harvest: many estates did not bottle at all.
Overall reading of the year’s season across Napa Valley. 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
This is a great wine to come out of the gate for the Cathiard's new property, gorgeously balanced, expands through the mid-palate, delivers dark chocolate, charcoal, blackcurrant, damson, spiced greengage plum and pomegranate fruits with floral undertones. Feels fresher in many ways than the Founding Brothers, without sacrificing concentration and clarity, because the mouthwatering acidity is more apparent, giving it a luscious sign-off. This is largely from the Up and Down vineyard plot, where much of the oldest vine stock is concentrated. Justine Labbé winemaker, Frederick Ammons consultant.
Figures from the 2020 sheet
- 14.1 % vol.Alcohol
- 30 hl/haYield
- 35 yrsVine age
Winemaking
We harvested plot by plot, carefully sorting the grapes (using an optical sorting machine to remove potentially defective berries), and vinified each parcel separately with gentle, low-temperature extractions and long macerations.
Ageing
18 months barrel-ageing, 80% new oak + some special vats.
Terroir
All of these improvements in the vineyard have been met with some pleasant surprises and with very distinctive expressions of certain parcels. "Up and Down", the highest hillside parcel, has a tannic profile, firm, tense and fresh, while "Backbone", located on sedimentary soil, offers a more fleshy and unctuous profile, allowing for wonderful blends.
An offer on Cathiard Vineyard 2020
Availability, allocations and terms: the Compagnie Médocaine will reply promptly. The estate and vintage are already filled in in the message.
Texts and documents 2020
The texts below copy in one click for your product sheets, catalogues and social channels. The printable sheet condenses the whole page onto a single A4 page.
Visuals
This wine’s visuals are grouped in the media library. High-definition packshots, labels, back labels and lifestyle photos are reserved for clients and partners, on the Compagnie Médocaine’s VinCod media library.
Sheet checked on September 21, 2026. Technical data: the estate’s VinCod sheets. Critic scores: sources cited above, with their date. Vintage benchmarks and character: Compagnie Médocaine’s own editorial read. Soils and relief, where shown: the Compagnie Médocaine’s parcel survey and the Mapbox/IGN terrain model.