The 2020 vintage in Pauillac
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 Pauillac. 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.
The vintage
« The 2020 vintage is a very great Médoc vintage. The summer was particularly dry and sunny. Haut-Bages Libéral 2020 is a wine made with beautiful freshness, very qualitative tannins and an ageing potential of several decades. » Claire Villars-Lurton, the owner.
« This vintage was as complicated as it was qualitative. Château Haut-Bages Libéral 2020 could be likened to the personality of a dancer combining strength and elegance. » Thomas Bontemps, the technical director.
Blend of the 2020 vintage
- 78 % Cabernet-sauvignon
- 22 % Merlot
Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2020 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, cabernet franc — a vintage blend departs from the area under vine as the year dictates.
Winemaking
Plot and tailor-made vinification (adapted in terms of material, duration and temperatures). Maceration with the addition of neutral gas to stimulate gentle movements. A pumping over of one volume / day. 24 days of maceration. Vertical pressing for special care to the presses.
Ageing
16 months of ageing: 40% in new oak barrels, 40% in one-year old barrels, 20% in amphorae TAVA.
Terroir
The vineyard covers 30 hectares, half of which are located around the property, adjoining Château Latour. The other part of the vineyard is on the Bages plateau, in the south of Pauillac. The estate's plots are located in 2 areas, one made up of deep gravels and the other of clay-limestone and chalky limestone. This type of soil gives the wine its power and its mineral character. A large part of its fine deep-gravel land overlooks the Gironde estuary. These gravels were carried down by the river from the Pyrenees during the Quaternary era. They rest on a limestone bedrock.
An offer on Château Haut-Bages Libéral 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.