Chateau Grand-Puy-Ducasse 2020
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Winter, marked by heavy rains and lingering sweetness until spring, make 2020 a very early vintage. The teams worked meticulously and intensely to maintain good health in the vineyard despite the pressure throughout the vine cycle. This redoubled attention and these special conditions were ultimately a decisive advantage for the masterful quality of this vintage. If it is a bit early to use superlatives, 2020 should be one of the great Bordeaux vintages: sunny, rich, spicy, smooth, but also tense and fresh, a signature of the greatest
Blend: 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A transparent and clear young Pauillac with blackcurrant, mushroom, chocolate, and wet earth. Full-bodied, layered and flavorful with fine, velvety tannins. Plenty of graphite and blue fruit at the end. Drink after 2027.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Chateau Grand-Puy Ducasse is a brilliant, powerful, age-worthy Pauillac that will reward bottle age. Blackcurrants, tobacco, cedar pencil, and chocolate are just some of its nuances, and this beauty hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a dense, mouth-filling texture, plenty of ripe tannins, and outstanding length. It's not the most elegant Pauillac out there, but it has quintessential aromatics, structure, and density, and is beautifully done, as well as incredibly satisfying. It will probably take a decade of bottle age to hit maturity, and it should have 30-40 years of overall longevity. Tasted three times. Best After 2031
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is seriously structured, contrasting the dry core with juicy, fresh and fruity black currant flavors. The elements are all in place and open to view, promising a wine of longevity with balanced freshness and richness.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Wine Spectator
Flows wonderfully from the start, with an already accessible feel to the mix of cassis and dark blackberry notes inlaid with singed alder, warm paving stone, tobacco leaf and graphite accents that then carry the finish. In the end, there's no rush at all here. A pretty gorgeous Pauillac. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from 2025 through 2038.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse is of the winery's best wines produced. This wine exhibits aromas and flavors of ripe, black fruits and oaky notes. Enjoy it with pan-fried skirt steak with morels. (Tasted: January 27, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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The estate's true "inventor" was Pierre Ducasse, a lawyer who was passionately interested in wine. He bought land in the city of Pauillac and a part of the "bordieu de Grand-Puy", which spread out over three parishes (Pauillac, Saint Lambert and Beycheville). Pierre Ducasse's son built the current chateau on the site of his ancestors' house in the early 19th century.
This chateau is highly unusual in that it is located in the heart of Pauillac. Included in the famous 1855 classification, and benefiting from the rich diversity of some of the finest vineyard land in Pauillac, Grand-Puy Ducasse is one of the leaders of this appellation. This great wine is made with the utmost care and the most up-to-date technological methods.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.