Château Les Carmes Haut Brion, Pessac Léognan, 2020

Name: Château Les Carmes Haut Brion, Pessac Léognan
Brand: Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion
Price: 537.53 GBP

Available Vintages

all 2006 2015 2020 2021 2023 2024

justerini & brooks tasting note

These suburban vineyards comprised of Mindel gravels on clay and limestone are planted with 39% Cabernet Franc, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 41% Merlot. Guillaume described it as 'a vintage of convictions'. They continued with 55% whole bunch fermentations, which reduces the alcohol content and adds a sapidity. The nose offers aromas of creamy, dark cherry notes, clay, incense and crème de mûre. There’s great intensity to the palate, pure, silky, lovely chewy texture to the fruit, full of blackberries and minerals. The tannins envelope the dark mineral core weaving a gloriously detailed finale laced with Valrhona chocolate and Chambord. This really grows in stature as it unfurls in the glass. Unique and utterly intriguing. Produced from 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot aged in 80% new French oak, 11% foudres and 9% amphora

critic reviews

95/100Neal Martin,Vinous

The 2020 Les Carmes Haut-Brion has an opulent bouquet of black cherries, blueberries and violets, with just a patina of new oak to be fully subsumed. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy, ripe tannins. Very well balanced, it's quite a lascivious Pessac-Léognan, with a caressing and very peppery finish. Certainly, this represents one of the best vintages in the modern era under Guillaume Pouthier. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

DRINKING WINDOW 2028 - 2055

date of review 11/2024

97/100William Kelley,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2020 Les Carmes Haut-Brion has turned out beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of blackberries, red fruits, exotic spices, rose petals, raw cocoa and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and layered, it's intensely flavored but weightless, with a compelling sense of harmony and a long, orange-inflected finish. A blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot, it was vinified with some 65% whole bunch and attained 13.5% alcohol. This is the first vintage where Pouthier's methods (whole bunch with weighted cap and long elevage incorporating larger vessels) were applied writ large, and the results are striking.

DRINKING WINDOW 2025 - 2055

date of review 04/2023

98/100Lisa Perrotti-Brown,The Wine Independent

The 2020 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 26% Merlot with a pH of 3.62 and aged for 24 months in 80% new oak, 11% foudres, and 9% terracotta amphoras. A proportion of whole-bunch fermentation was used, depending on the suitability of the batch: 50-60% whole bunch was generally used on the Merlot and Cabernet Franc, less on the Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it slowly releases the most gorgeous perfume of violets, dark chocolate, black cherry preserves, and creme de cassis, followed by suggestions of crushed rocks, tar, wild sage, and anise. The medium-bodied palate delivers a solid foundation of firm, grainy tannins and seamless freshness to support the tight-knit black fruit and mineral layers, finishing long and perfumed.

DRINKING WINDOW 2028 - 2065

date of review 03/2023

97/100Jane Anson,Inside Bordeaux

Inky plum colour, violet and peony aromatics followed up by orange zest and pencil lead on the opening beats. Just so much depth, quality and characte, chalky tannins are softening just enough to show the form of the fruit bneath, giving a sense of architecture and form. Sculpted blue and black fruits appear as things expand through the mid palate, with crushed mint leaf and mouthwatering oyster shell on the finish. The flavours evolve and the character emerges the longer you linger over this glass, and it's an excellent vintage of Carmes, with sculpted delicous fruits. 3.58ph, 55% whole cluster, 80% new oak, 10% foudres, 10% amohora for ageing.

DRINKING WINDOW 2028 - 2048

date of review 02/2023