Château Trotte Vieille 2020

The 2020 vintage in Saint-Émilion

Vintage benchmark: 96/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: An early, dry year gave splendid wines, which many rank above 2018.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Émilion. 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

Lively red colour, with purplish-blue hues. The aromatic intensity is remarkable. Very fruity, it reveals notes of ripe cherry, fresh plum and raspberry. Its superb Cabernet Franc brings a singular floral touch that perfectly expresses its distinction. The mouth is impressive, with a fleshy and juicy texture that gives it great length. 2020 is a true expression of this exceptional terroir made of clay and limestone.

The vintage

2020, the third Musketeer of that very successful trilogy: 2018, 2019 and 2020. The year began with a cold, slightly wet January, followed by a dry February with little rain and a very hot day on the 3rd (24°C). At the beginning of March the weather was cold; budburst took place on 24 March, marking the start of the new vintage, just after the lockdown began. In early May fine weather arrived, quickly favouring flowering, which began on 8 May - very early! Rain then set in until mid-June. Véraison began on 3 July with a dry month (1 mm of water), followed by only 23 mm around 15 August. This drought ultimately led to harvests that were less early than expected, but as in all great vintages the whole harvest took place in September. The Merlots were picked in three passes from 12 to 21 September, the Cabernets on 29 and 30 September. Superb Merlots and Cabernets of very fine quality give this great vintage the roundness, richness and elegance that characterise these great grape varieties and this exceptional terroir.

Blend of the 2020 vintage

Winemaking

Each vineyard plot is vinified separately to ensure optimal traceability, with a cold pre-fermentation maceration, a low-temperature alcoholic fermentation, followed by a warm post-fermentation maceration based on tasting.

Malolactic fermentation takes place in vats or barrels.

Ageing

Lively red colour, with purplish-blue hues. The aromatic intensity is remarkable. Very fruity, it reveals notes of ripe cherry, fresh plum and raspberry. Its superb Cabernet Franc brings a singular floral touch that perfectly expresses its distinction. The mouth is impressive, with a fleshy and juicy texture that gives it great length. 2020 is a true expression of this exceptional terroir made of clay and limestone.

Terroir

Château TrotteVieille occupies a superb hillside east of the village of Saint-Émilion; the vineyard extends over a 12-hectare terroir planted with 49% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is one of the few estates still holding very old Cabernet Franc vines dating from before phylloxera.