Chateau Carbonnieux 2020

Professional Ratings

• 95 James Suckling
  Blackcurrants, raspberries, crushed stone, bark, and dark mushroom. Licorice, too. Full-bodied with chewy tannins that are minerally and intense. Tangy undertone with plenty going on. Very structured. Solid wine from this estate.
• 94 Jeb Dunnuck
  From a region that excelled in 2020, the 2020 Château Carbonnieux sports a deep purple hue to go with a killer bouquet of ripe blackcurrants, leafy tobacco, scorched earth, and graphite. It's rich, concentrated, and medium to full-bodied on the palate, with a beautiful mid-palate as well as building, ripe tannins. This stunning effort warrants 3-4 years of bottle age and will evolve for 10-15 years in cold cellars.
• 94 Wine Enthusiast
  The Perrin family's wine has a structured character with tannins and crisp black currant fruits offering juicy, bright acidity as well as some fine potential. The wine's richness will develop well.
  Barrel Sample: 93-95
• 93 Decanter
  This delivers a lovely streamlined, mineral-edged palate full of blackcurrant, plum and black cherry fruit. It’s quite potent in that you get heat on the mid-palate, suggesting high alcohol which detracts a little form the overall enjoyment and makes this a little severe. But there is nice freshness and summery red berry fruits and herbal accents underneath so give this time.
• 93 Wine Spectator
  Solidly built, this seems to soak up the vintage's heat, turning it around in the form of a broad swath of steeped black currant and blackberry paste flavors supported by warm tar and smoldering tobacco. Shows a nice singed cedar frame, with a lingering note of warm paving stone on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2025 through 2035.
• 92 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The 2020 Carbonnieux has turned out nicely, like its white counterpart, exhibiting aromas of plums, cassis and cherries mingled with hints of pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, rich and gourmand, with powdery tannins and a succulent core of fruit, it's an elegant effort from this large Pessac estate.