2020 Château Batailley, Pauillac, Bordeaux

2020 Château Batailley, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Product: 20208003227
Prices start from £160.00 per case Buying options
2020 Château Batailley, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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6 x 75cl bottle
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BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £160.00
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12 x 37.5cl half bottle
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3 x 150cl magnum
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1 x 300cl double magnum
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Description

Cabernet Sauvignon 70%, Merlot 25%, Cabernet Franc 2%, Petit Verdot 2%.

This is a high-octane Ch. Batailley, which will delight the many fans of its style and value. Its aromas are warm and ripe, with just a suggestion of the dryness of the summer in evidence from some firm tannins. The palate opens out into fulsome and lush textures, and the fruit is weighty and heady. The slight solidity of style is entirely consistent with Batailley’s renowned longevity. The wine finishes with very ripe cassis fruit, and a winning, lingering sensation of pure pleasure.

Drink 2026 - 2045

Berry Bros. & Rudd

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Jane Anson94/100

42hl/ha, owned by the Casteja family.

Always a Pauillac that I love to recommend, as it is packed with appellation signature, and it suits the slightly serious character of 2020. Entirely delivers on En Primeur promise, with charcoal, cigar box, slate, crayon and fragrant mint leaf set against waves of black cherry and cassis fruit.

Drink 2028 - 2046

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (December 2023)

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Neal Martin, Vinous93/100

The 2020 Batailley has a well-defined bouquet with quite precocious blackberry and raspberry fruit, graphite, just a hint of aniseed, very nicely focused and poised. The palate is medium-bodied with tensile black fruit and armed with commendable salinity and a very detailed finish that lingers in the mouth. Want a classically-styled Pauillac at a good value? Look no further.

Drink 2028 - 2055

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (February 2023)

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Wine Advocate92+/100

A strong effort for this Pauillac fifth growth, the 2020 Batailley offers up aromas of sweet blackcurrant fruit mingled with notes of cloves, baking spices, vanilla pod and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, with good depth and concentration, its pure core of fruit is framed by powdery, youthfully assertive tannins.

Drink 2027 - 2050

William Kelley, Wine Advocate (April 2023)

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Jancis Robinson MW17/20

Dark fruit with cassis notes and a graphite edge. Fine attack, juicy and refreshing but backed by a firmness of structure behind. Solid, subdued and distinctly Pauillac. Still relative value.

Drink 2028 - 2040

James Lawther MW, JancisRobinson.com (April 2021)

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James Suckling95/100

70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc.

Aromas of black and red currants as well as orange. Ink pot. Cassis bush. Bramble berry. Graphite. Full-bodied yet tight and back-loaded with intense tannins, but they turn soft and polished. Very classic structure. Reminds me of a top Batailley from the 1980s, like 1985, but much more precise and clear.

Try after 2030

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (May 2023)

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Decanter96/100

18 months ageing in oak barrels, 60% new.

Really quite fragrant, with lots of purple flowers and purple fruits, ripe blackcurrants, and pencil shavings - deep and brooding. Supple and succulent, immediately just so balanced and comfortable in the mouth, calm and quietly confident, less showing off, not so overt or upfront, but more mouth-filling and expansive. Tannins give a stronghold in the mouth but are fine and velvety in texture, cushioning the cool fruit - blueberries and black cherries with mint and liquorice edges but not spiced. There’s an air of style but also of ease, you could drink this now, it's so approachable and likeable in the glass. Mouthwatering acidity, long and giving. Lovely structure and frame, great definition and persistence from the beginning. Opulent and structured, this needs some time, but I like the texture and tension, excellent potential.

Drink 2027 - 2048

Georgina Hindle, Decanter.com (January 2023)

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Jeb Dunnuck92/100

Darker currants, black cherries, leather, ripe tobacco, and cedar pencil notes all emerge from the 2020 Château Batailley, a classic, balanced, nicely concentrated Pauillac with lots to love. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has plenty of mid-palate depth, ripe tannins, and just a charming, satisfying character that will evolve nicely for two decades if well stored. It's certainly in the same league as the 2015, 2016, and 2019.

Drink 2025 - 2043

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (March 2023)

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About this WINE

Château Batailley

Château Batailley

Château Batailley is one of the oldest estates in Bordeaux, dating from the 15th century. A 5ème Cru Classé, it is known for producing wines of consistently high quality and excellent value in a classic Pauillac style.

The vineyard sits on a plateau at the southern end of Pauillac, on the site of a battle between the French and the English during the Hundred Years War – hence the name ‘Batailley’. The estate has been owned by the Borie family since 1932, and is currently in the hands of family-members Denise and Emile Castèja of the famous negociants Borie-Manoux, which also owns Ch. Lynch-Moussas, Ch. Trotte Vieille and Domaine de l’Église. Ch. Batailley, considered to be the jewel in the family crown, is now managed by son Philippe Castèja and grandson Frédéric.

For years, Ch. Batailley has enjoyed a reputation as a reliable, well-priced Pauillac. Over the last 15-20 years, however, there has been a much greater emphasis on the quality of the fruit. The result has been wines of decidedly more finesse – still in the classic Pauillac style, and still one of the best value Cru Classé at any level.

Since 2014, Batailley has produced a second wine, Lions de Batailley, using grapes from some of the younger vines; it’s lighter in style but retains the signature profile of the Grand Vin.

The 57 hectares of vineyards are planted in classic Pauillac proportions: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The deep gravel beds are ideal for the later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon; the clay and limestone subsoil is equally favourable to Merlot. Grapes are harvested by hand, in parcels of roughly one hectare each.

Grapes are fully de-stemmed, then fermented in stainless steel tanks. Malolactic fermentation takes place partly in tank, partly in barrel, and the wine is then aged in 225-litre barriques, 55% new, for 16-18 months before bottling.

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Pauillac

Pauillac

Pauillac is the aristocrat of the Médoc boasting boasting 75 percent of the region’s First Growths and with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of Pauillac's production.

For a small town, surrounded by so many familiar and regal names, Pauillac imparts a slightly seedy impression. There are no grand hotels or restaurants – with the honourable exception of the establishments owned by Jean-Michel Cazes – rather a small port and yacht harbour, and a dominant petrochemical plant.

Yet outside the town, , there is arguably the greatest concentration of fabulous vineyards throughout all Bordeaux, including three of the five First Growths. Bordering St Estèphe to the north and St Julien to the south, Pauillac has fine, deep gravel soils with important iron and marl deposits, and a subtle, softly-rolling landscape, cut by a series of small streams running into the Gironde. The vineyards are located on two gravel-rich plateaux, one to the northwest of the town of Pauillac and the other to the south, with the vines reaching a greater depth than anywhere else in the Médoc.

Pauillac's first growths each have their own unique characteristics; Lafite Rothschild, tucked in the northern part of Pauillac on the St Estèphe border, produces Pauillac's most aromatically complex and subtly-flavoured wine. Mouton Rothschild's vineyards lie on a well-drained gravel ridge and - with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon - can produce (in its best years) Pauillac's most decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.

Latour, arguably Bordeaux's most consistent First Growth, is located in southern Pauillac next to St Julien. Its soil is gravel-rich with superb drainage, and Latour's vines penetrate as far as five metres into the soil. It produces perhaps the most long-lived wines of the Médoc.

Recommended Châteaux
Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, Ch. Latour, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch. Lynch-Bages, Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Ch, Pontet-Canet, Les Forts de Latour, Ch. Haut-Batailley, Ch. Batailley, Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral.

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Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet 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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