2020 Château Croizet-Bages

A little bit of an under-the-radar Pauillac, the 2020 Château Croizet-Bages exbibits attractive aromatics of sweet currants, cherries, new saddle leather, and cedar pencil. These carry to a medium-bodied, nicely balanced, elegant 2020 with ripe, polished tannins, terrific balance, and outstanding length. A beautiful wine, it already has some up-front appeal yet should benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age and have a good two decades of overall longevity.

The 2020 Croizet-Bages is a very pretty, aromatic Pauillac. Crushed flowers, sweet red berry fruit, dried herbs, incense and rose petal are all beautifully lifted. Nervy tannins need time to soften, but all elements are nicely balanced. I especially admire the energy and understated persistence here.

Austere and chunky tannins, dark chocolate that has an attractively bitter edge and gives definition to the blueberry, blackberry and cassis fruits. 41 hl/ha yield, 50% new oak. Eric Boissenot consultant. Jean-Philippe Quié is technical director and co-owner at this family-run estate, harvest September 11-29.