2020 chateau pape clement cru classe, pessac-leognan
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Why We're Buying
Château Pape Clément is the oldest wine estate in Bordeaux and a powerhouse among red and white wine producers. Even a place as renowned as Château Pape Clément can benefit from some good PR, though. In 2010, wine critic Robert Parker gave the grand vin the magic 100-point rating, and within a year, the price jumped from $1,270 to $2,170 (70.9).
Critics Scores
Jeb Dunnuck
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.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
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.
Wine Enthusiast
This ancient estate, an oasis in the suburbs of Bordeaux city, offers a wine that is packed with promising tannins. The important and rich black fruits reveal concentration, density and the potential of the development of a fine balance and structure as it matures.
Decanter
Powerful in color, this has the glass staining red and purple colors that Pape Clément does so well. Touches of licorice 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. Savory, there is nothing too exuberant in the fruits but it exudes deft confidence.
Vinous
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. –Neal Martin
James Suckling
Superb aromas of blackberries, crushed stones, iodine and graphite. Full-bodied with ultra fine tannins and a balanced finish. Such length and beauty. Very close to the 2019 in quality.