2020 Le Dragon de Quintus, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2020 Le Dragon de Quintus, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20208113629
 
2020 Le Dragon de Quintus, St Emilion, Bordeaux

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Description

The 2020 Le Dragon de Quintus has a bold, generous bouquet of licorice-infused black fruit, touches of incense and potpourri emerging with aeration. The palate is very smooth on the entry, quite lush and pure, and lightly spiced, leading to a cohesive, seductive finish of fine length for a Deuxième Vin. This should give 12–15 years of drinking enjoyment.

Drink from 2025 to 2037

Neal Martin, Vinous (May 2021)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous90-92/100
The 2020 Le Dragon de Quintus has a bold, generous bouquet of licorice-infused black fruit, touches of incense and potpourri emerging with aeration. The palate is very smooth on the entry, quite lush and pure, and lightly spiced, leading to a cohesive, seductive finish of fine length for a Deuxième Vin. This should give 12–15 years of drinking enjoyment.

Drink from 2025 to 2037

Neal Martin, Vinous (May 2021) Read more
Antonio Galloni, Vinous90-92/100
The 2020 Le Dragon de Quintus is very nicely done. In 2020, it has an extra kick of freshness that was at times missing from earlier vintages. That energy neatly plays off the natural richness of this site. All the elements are well balanced here. Crushed raspberry, cinnamon, new leather and blood orange linger. This is a terrific showing,

Drink from 2025 to 2035

Antonio Galloni, Vinous (June 2021) Read more
Jane Anson89/100
A fleshy, powerful, black cherry and damson filled Dragon. The high alcohols are just about matched by the depth of fruit but it brings things to a slightly abrupt finish, with an emphasis on some bitter grilled cumin spice. The harvest began on 11th September for the Merlot grapes and on 23rd September for the Cabernet Franc.

Drink 2024 - 2036

Jane Anson, Decanter (April 2021) Read more
Wine Advocate90-92/100
Composed of 84.7% Merlot and 15.3% Cabernet Franc, while possessing an alcohol of 15.2%, the 2020 le Dragon de Quintus has a deep garnet-purple color and notions of plum preserves, kirsch, black raspberries and cinnamon toast, plus hints of mossy tree bark and incense. The full-bodied palate is jam-packed with juicy black and red berries, supported by soft tannins and lovely freshness, finishing long and spicy.

Drink 2023 - 2038

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (May 2021) Read more
Jancis Robinson MW16/20
Cask sample taken 13 April. Nice and fresh! 84.7% Merlot, 15.3% Cabernet Franc. Mid crimson with a pale rim. Light but warm, fully ripe impression on the nose. And a little marked acidity on the finish. The overall palate impression is not as rich as many f the 2020 St-Émilions I have been tasting, but then this is the first second wine I have tasted from the appellation in this vintage. Just a little stringy on the end.

Drink 2023 - 2029

Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com (April 2021) Read more
James Suckling92-93/100
A soft, round red with blackberry, chocolate and hints of spice and cedar. It’s medium-bodied with silky tannins and a juicy finish.

James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (April 2021) Read more
Jeb Dunnuck90-92/100
The second wine of Château Quintus, the 2020 Le Dragon De Quintus is one impressive looking barrel sample, offering lots of cassis and black cherry fruits as well as medium to full body, ripe, soft tannins, plenty of tobacco, earth, and green flower notes, and outstanding length on the finish. It doesn't have the richness of the Grand Vin but has lots of class and should drink well for 10-12 years or more.

Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com (May 2021) Read more

About this WINE

Chateau Quintus

Chateau Quintus

The Clarence Dillon family company acquired a beautiful estate in Saint-Emilion, and renamed it Château Quintus. An exceptional terroir that has been recognised as such for centuries. The estate naturally wraps around a high promontory which represents the end of the plateau of Saint-Emilion. The vineyard benefits from a majestic panarama extending towards the neighbouring village and across the entire Dordogne valley. It is in the place that, for time immemorial, a watch tower has stood to ensure the defence of the village of Saint-Emilion.

The originality of this extraordinary terroir lies in its diversity of soils, slopes and orientations. It is therefore hardly surprising that this wine was featured between 1844 and 1848 - under its old name Château Tertre Daugay - among the 14 most sought after and most expensive wines of Saint-Emilion. For close to a century the great reference book Cocks and Feret "Bordeaux et ses Vins" will consistently mention the property as a First Growth of Saint -Emilion. The vineyard was also one of the prominent Saint-Emilion estates to receive a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1867.

A text found in another great book of the time "Les Grands Vins de Gironde" de Dumas et Lallemand (1899) reads "One can not imagine a more beautiful situation for an estate, or one more favourable for the production of a First Growth wine (...) Thanks to the excellent vinification practices undertaken at the estate, the wine produced here reflects great body, ripeness and an armature that exemplify the great wines of Saint-Emilion."

This wine takes its natural place alongside the red and white wines of Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion, thereby becoming the 5th child in this illustrious family.

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St Émilion

St Émilion

St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank. 

St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel. 

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol.  Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.  

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices.  The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.

St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012

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Merlot

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.

In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.

Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.

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