Beychevelle 2020 (750ML)

97 JD / 96 VM / 96 DE / 96 WCI / 95 WI / 94-96 WE / 94 JS / 94 JA / 94 WS / 94 FS / 93+ WA / 17.5 JR

The Grand Vin 2020 Château Beychevelle is a tiny selection representing just 55% of the total production of the estate. The blend is 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, and 4% Petit Verdot which spent 18 months in 70% new French oak, hitting 13.5% natural alcohol. Surpassing both the 2016 and 2018, this inky-hued Saint-Julien offers a round, lush, full-bodied style as well as gorgeous aromatics of black cherries, blueberries, loamy earth, chocolate, and spring flowers. The vintage doesn't get any sexier, and this has sweet tannins, an opulent mouthfeel, and riveting purity and finesse. While it already offers pleasure, it's going to benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and keep for 25+.-- Jeb Dunnuck

The 2020 Beychevelle is a wild, exotic beauty. Blackberry jam, gravel, crushed rocks menthol and espresso ristretto give Beychevelle its flamboyant personality. All the elements are so well balanced in this full-throttle, hugely enjoyable Saint-Julien. The 2020 is lights out.--Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

Scented and perfumed - violet tones, almost a touch of liqueur fruit to the nose, aromatic with dark chocolate touches too. Bright and shining, this is sleek, quite delicately displayed in terms of texture but this has layers of savoury elements - liquorice, clove, tobacco with bright red fruits and dark bramble fruits. Clean and compelling. Well made with tons of confidence. So complete, juicy in a heady seductive way, this is deeply scented, driven and brooding but perfectly weighted to keep the right side of being too heavy. Refreshing but devilishly charming - it leaves a clean feeling in the mouth where you just want to taste it again.-Georgina Hindle, Decanter

The nose opens with a gorgeous display of flowers, chocolate, tobacco, black currants, blackberries, licorice, wet forest floor and espresso. As good as the perfume is, the wine is all about its layers of creamy, fresh, sweet, ripe, dark red pit fruits on the palate. The wine is full-bodied, elegant, lifted and refined, with length and purity to top it all off. The wine should age effortlessly for 3 decades, yet drink well, relatively early. Drink from 2025-2060.-Jeff Leve, Wine Cellar Insider

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2020 Beychevelle leaps with vibrant notes of crushed blackcurrants, juicy black plums, and black raspberries with fragrant hints of pencil shavings, dried roses, and aniseed. Medium-bodied, the palate is refined and elegant with bright acidity and fine-grained tannins, finishing long and earthy.. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

Barrel Sample. The wine's structure and serious tannins are, happily, balanced by the rich generosity of the fruit flavors. Together, the two elements of this very fine wine will allow it to develop with weight and concentration. — Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast

28 Dec, 2022 – A very polished and refined 2020 with a medium body, integrated tannins and a pretty texture. Nice currant, light chocolate and cedar undertones. Fresh finish. Drink after 2026. - James Suckling

Brambled fruit, muscular but nicely integrated tannic architecture, cocoa bean and blackberry, well put together, skilful and enjoyable, cassis and cloves, grilled toast and sandalwood. Suggest giving the traditional ten years in bottle before opening, and should stay on the plateau for another few decades after that. Harvest September 14 to 29, 47hl/h yield, 60% new oak for ageing.-Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

Delivers vivid fruit, with an eye-catching beam of cassis, kirsch and plum sauce notes that flow through nicely, supported by a light brambly edge and a well-inlaid graphite spine. The finish is scored by violet and anise as the fruit lingers. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2027 through 2037.--JM, Wine Spectator

Dark ruby ​​garnet, violet reflections, opaque core, delicately brightened edges. Attractive black cherry fruit, fine cassis, a hint of herbal spice, delicately underlined with licorice. Juicy, fresh red cherries, sweet plums, silky, ripe tannins, mineral-salty finish, delicate, accessible style, balanced and well-lingering. (2028–2045)-Peter Moser, Falstaff

Rich and muscular, the 2020 Beychevelle offers up aromas of cassis, blackberries and baked plums mingled with notions of spices, pencil shavings and toasty new oak. Medium to full-bodied, thick and fleshy, with an ample core of fruit framed by powdery, generously extracted tannins that assert themselves on the finish, this is a more powerful, chunky Beychevelle than the suave 2019.--William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

Cask sample. Combines black fruit with an attractive gravelly quality on the nose – petrichor, perhaps? Long and elegant on the palate. The mineral element gives attractive and immediate complexity.-Richard Hemming MW, JancisRobinson