Chateau Beychevelle St. Julien 2020 - 750ml

97pts Jeb Dunnuck

The Grand Vin 2020 Chateau Beychevelle is a tiny selection representing just 55% of the total production of the estate. The blend is 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, and 4% Petit Verdot which spent 18 months in 70% new French oak, hitting 13.5% natural alcohol. Surpassing both the 2016 and 2018, this inky-hued Saint-Julien offers a round, lush, full-bodied style as well as gorgeous aromatics of black cherries, blueberries, loamy earth, chocolate, and spring flowers. The vintage doesn't get any sexier, and this has sweet tannins, an opulent mouthfeel, and riveting purity and finesse. While it already offers pleasure, it's going to benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and keep for 25+. Best After 2027

96pts Vinous

The 2020 Beychevelle opens with the most exotic bouquet imaginable. Wild flowers of all sorts, spice, lavender and inky dark fruit all saturate the palate. As always, Beychevelle is an overt, flamboyant wine, but all of the elements are so well out together. The 2020 is sexy, alluring and impossible to resist. Time in the glass brings out redder tonalities of fruit along with sweet floral notes that add striking inner perfume. Even as a barrel sample, I am so tempted to just drink it. -Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 94-96

95pts Wine Enthusiast

The wine's structure and serious tannins are, happily, balanced by the rich generosity of the fruit flavors. Together, the two elements of this very fine wine will allow it to develop with weight and concentration.
Barrel Sample: 94-96

94pts James Suckling

A very polished and refined 2020 with a medium body, integrated tannins and a pretty texture. Nice currant, light chocolate and cedar undertones. Fresh finish.

94pts Decanter

Smoke, grilled almond on the nose, even a touch of rubber from an edge of reduction. This has depth to black chocolate and bilberry fruit, it is well balanced and seductive. Enjoyable, it's pretty broad shouldered but it sits well within the successful run of vintages at Beychevelle. A yield of 47hl/ha. 18 months ageing. 55% first wine.
Barrel Sample: 94

94pts Wine Spectator

Delivers vivid fruit, with an eye-catching beam of cassis, kirsch and plum sauce notes that flow through nicely, supported by a light brambly edge and a well-inlaid graphite spine. The finish is scored by violet and anise as the fruit lingers. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot.

93pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Rich and muscular, the 2020 Beychevelle offers up aromas of cassis, blackberries and baked plums mingled with notions of spices, pencil shavings and toasty new oak. Medium to full-bodied, thick and fleshy, with an ample core of fruit framed by powdery, generously extracted tannins that assert themselves on the finish, this is a more powerful, chunky Beychevelle than the suave 2019. Rating: 93+

Winemaker Notes

It is a generous wine that amazes by its approachability from its early youth. On the nose, it seduces with notes of blackberry black cherry and dark chocolate. It is a very harmonious wine. It is both powerful and silky, fresh, fruity, and long on the palate. This is an example of the destiny of Great Terroirs.

Blend: 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot