2020 Château Pape Clément, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

2020 Château Pape Clément, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

Product: 20201013690
Wine Advocate96-98/100
Antonio Galloni, Vinous95-97/100
Neal Martin, Vinous95-97/100
Jancis Robinson MW16.5+/10
Jeb Dunnuck97-99/100
Jane Anson94/100
Michael Schuster90-93/100
Prices start from £378.00 per case Buying options
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2020 Château Pape Clément, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

Description

Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 50%

Jeanne Lacombe, the estate’s technical director, considers the quality of the fruit in 2020 among the best ever here – especially the Cabernet Sauvignon, with its velvety tannins and remarkably dense texture. The sample tasted was impressively constructed, complete with the château’s signature smoky and toasty aromas. The palate is rich and chocolatey, with savoury miso notes along with vibrant blueberry and blackberry flavours. There is an impressive immediacy, but this is for the long haul, too.

Drink 2025-2040

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Find out more.
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Case format
Availability
Price per case
6 x 75cl bottle
Berry Bros. & Rudd BB&R 79 cases £378.00
En Primeur Limited availability
En Primeur Limited availability

Critics reviews
Wine Advocate96-98/100
Antonio Galloni, Vinous95-97/100
Neal Martin, Vinous95-97/100
Jancis Robinson MW16.5+/10
Jeb Dunnuck97-99/100
Jane Anson94/100
Michael Schuster90-93/100
Wine Advocate96-98/100
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2020 Pape Clement comes barreling out of the glass with bold notes of cassis, plum preserves and licorice, giving way to scents of cedar chest, crushed rocks, charcoal and pencil lead. The medium to full-bodied palate is tightly coiled with beautiful tension and a firm, finely grained texture locking in the layers of black fruits and minerals, finishing with great length and energy. The blend this year is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot, aging mainly in French oak barriques, 66% new, with about 10% aging in large oak foudres. The wine will spend approximately 18 months in barrels.

Drink from 2028 to 2060

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (May 2021) Read more
Antonio Galloni, Vinous95-97/100
The 2020 Pape Clément is so impressive. Red cherry, plum, cedar, mint, tobacco, blood orange and rose petal all build as the 2020 opens in the glass. Vibrant and beautifully delineated, the 2020 has a ton to offer. The 2020 exudes purity, energy and breathtaking balance. It is one of the finest recent vintages I can remember tasting.

Drink from 2025 to 2045

Antonio Galloni, Vinous (June 2021) Read more
Neal Martin, Vinous95-97/100
The 2020 Pape Clément, which I afforded an hour’s aeration, has a very precise bouquet of pure blackberry, cedar, mint and violet aromas, quite discreet but paradoxically intense; these aromas are very seductive. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe, lithe tannins framing wonderfully pure black fruit laced with crushed stone and a judicious touch of white pepper. Seamless in texture, this is a sophisticated Pape Clément in the making, an outstanding wine that should age brilliantly in bottle.

Drink from 2025 to 2060

Neal Martin, Vinous (May 2021) Read more
Jancis Robinson MW16.5+/10
Cask sample. Dark purplish crimson. Not too heavy on the appetising nose even if a tad sweet on the palate with a rather demandingly drying, tart finish. But I know from experience that everything often falls into place by the time the drinking window comes around. But don't try to broach it before then.

Drink 2029 - 2044

Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com (April 2021) Read more
Jeb Dunnuck97-99/100
Ranking with the top wines of the vintage, the dense purple-hued 2020 Château Pape Clement offers a sensational bouquet of pure crème de cassis interwoven with notes of liquid violets and classy oak. Possessing flawless balance, full-bodied richness, and ultra-fine tannins, it excels in this vintage and has a pretty, elegant, yet also layered and concentrated profile. It will drink well with just short-term cellaring yet evolve gracefully for 20-30 years. I was able to taste this on multiple occasions, and it always checked in near the upper end of the scale. This is a gorgeous wine in the making.

Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com (May 2021) Read more
Jane Anson94/100
Powerful in colour, this has the glass staining red and purple colours that Pape Clément does so well. Touches of liquorice and cocoa beans, well handled, this gives power with one hand but takes it away with the other as the austerity and fresh mint leaf comes to the fore. Impressive, a really enjoyable, classically wrought but still full of concentration Pape Clément. Savoury, there is nothing too exuberant in the fruits but it exudes deft confidence.

Drink from 2028 to 2044

Jane Anson, Decanter (April 2021) Read more
Michael Schuster90-93/100
An abundance of ripe black fruit to smell, right on the edge of raisiny; full-bodied, vigorous in acidity, firm in tannin, quite fine but making for a muscular impression and balance; intense flavor, strong and deep within its tannin frame, a light gravel impression behind the mass of fruit, quite long to taste and with good fruit persistence. A very particular style, that of the hot vintage plus fairly extracty winemaking. A solid, powerful, sinewy, low-yield wine. There is clearly a fine fruit core within the substantial framework, but little of the gravel aromas that are often there. This seems a bit old-fashioned in style in today’s winemaking context—none the worse for that, but worth observing. Needs a decade minimum.

Drink 2030 - 2050

Michael Schuster, The World of Fine Wine (May 2021) Read more

About this WINE
Chateau Pape Clement

Chateau Pape Clement

Château Pape Clément is a Cru Classé Graves property that has one of the oldest documented histories of any Bordeaux vineyard, having been planted in 1300 by Bernard de Groth, the future Pope Clément V. In 1939 the estate was bought by the Montagne family and is now owned and run by Léo Montagne.

Pape Clément is located in the Bordeaux suburb of Pessac and consists of a chai and 32 hectares of vineyards, planted with Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (40%) and small amounts of Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle.

The quality of the wines at Pape Clément slipped in the 1960s and 70s, largely because of under-investment. Bernard Magrez was appointed as general manager in 1985 and he turned Pape Clément's fortunes around. He introduced more rigorous selection in the vineyards, as well as installing stainless steel vats and raising the percentage of new oak casks used in the maturation process.

Pape Clément now produces one of the finest clarets in Pessac-Léognan.

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Cab.Sauvignon Blend

Cab.Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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