2020 Peby Faugeres

Lastly, the 2020 Château Péby Faugères tastes like the blood of Merlot with its inky, full-bodied, yet incredibly pure profile. Pure cassis, ripe black cherries, graphite, spring flowers, and truffly, floral notes all emerge from the glass, and it hits the palate with a seamless, silky, powerful, yet still incredibly elegant profile. It shows the more inward, serious style of the vintage, has building tannins, and a salty, iron-like character, and it has the class to benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and evolve gracefully over the following two decades or more.

The 2020 P�by Faug�res sports a deep purple-black color and pronounced notes of blueberry preserves, plum pudding and Christmas cake, followed by hints of licorice, Indian spices and sandalwood with a waft of wild mushrooms. The full-bodied palate is jam-packed with concentrated black fruit preserves, framed by super firm, ripe, grainy tannins and tons of freshness, finishing very long and spicy. This wine has all the volume nobs turned to maximum�and it works! Definitely one for the hedonists, though.

The 2020 Péby-Faugères is ripe and plush on the nose of macerated black cherries, crème de cassis and violet scents; there’s a lot of new oak present, although it seems in sync with the fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe black fruit, sweet morello cherries and a dash of black pepper. Plush and quite decadent on the finish, in keeping with its style. I will be the contrarian as ever and not for the first time, pin my colors to the mast of the 2020 Faugères as my pick over Péby-Faugères, though hedonists will think otherwise.