Vieux Chateau Mazerat 2020 (3.0L)

94-96 JD / 93-95 WA / 94 DE / 93-94 JS / 91-93 VM

The 2020 Vieux Château Mazerat reveals a vivid purple hue to go with medium to full-bodied aromas and flavors of cassis, blueberries, scorched earth, and graphite. While Maltus’s Le Dôme gets most of the attention, I continue to just love this wine, and it shines in 2020 with both beautiful fruit and ample structure as well as one heck of a great finish. I’m not sure this will match the 2018 or 2019, but we’re certainly in the same ballpark, with the style being much closer to the more elegant 2019. - Jeb Dunnuck

The 2020 Vieux Château Mazerat is composed of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The Merlot from this single vineyard was picked on September 29th, the Cabernet Franc on October 8th and 9th. The wine has 13.2% alcohol and a pH of 3.58, and it's being aged in French oak barrels, 80% new. Deep garnet-purple colored, it needs a little swirling to reveal notes of black raspberries, Morello cherries and wild blueberries, with an undercurrent of cinnamon toast, lavender and tobacco leaf with a touch of tilled soil. The medium-bodied palate is beautifully refreshing and delicately styled, offering soft-spoken black berry and earthy layers with a soft texture and oodles of freshness, finishing long and minerally. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate

An opulent, sexy, rich wine, this is a clearly seductive, but quite different style from the Vieux Châtau Mazerat that I have loved in the past. Powerfully dense fruits with a stacked wall of tannins. There was some mildew impact this year, along with the low yields, so neither Le Carré or Les Asteries were produced, and the remaining grapes went in here (or at least the Merlot, with the Cabernet Franc going into Le Dôme - it is unclear if this is in fact to be a permanent arrangement). Last year it was closer to 35% Cabernet Franc so this is really a new look, and it is successful, but more expansive in feel. 80% new oak, 25hl/ha yields (they rarely go above 30hl/ha anyway). Harvest September 29 to October 9, made in the brilliant new cellar for Le Dôme. - Jane Anson, Decanter

A chewy, focused red with blackberry, blueberry and toasted-oak aromas and flavors. It’s medium-to full-bodied with savory fruit and a flavorful finish. - James Suckling

he 2020 Vieux Château Mazerat offers plenty of ripe black cherry, blueberry and crushed violets, all expressive and beautifully defined. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit on the entry and firm tannins, and quite saline toward the finish, which just needs to develop a little more delineation. At the moment, the aromatics show better than the palate, though they may change once in bottle.- Neal Martin, VM