- Colour Red
- Producer Château Pape Clément
- Region Pessac-Léognan
- Drinking 2028 - 2047
- Case size 6x75cl
- Available Now
2020 - Ch Pape Clément Grand Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan - 6x75cl
- Colour Red
- Producer Château Pape Clément
- Region Pessac-Léognan
- Drinking 2028 - 2047
- Case size 6x75cl
- Available Now
Select pricing type
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Goedhuis, May 2021, Score: 93-95
50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Merlot A feeling of wild earthy fruit. Strong flavours of alpine and hedgerow berries. This is fully concentrated and there is a feeling of warm spiced oak, providing a touch of sweetness. There is no sense of reserve to this wine, the high degree of muscle will reward patience and bottle aging.
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Neal Martin, December 2022, Score: 95
The 2020 Pape Clément Rouge has an incredibly intense bouquet with multi-layered blackberry and bilberry fruit, cedar and black olive compote aromas. Hints of vanilla pod and black truffle emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied with firm and quite assertive tannins that frame a huge weight of fruit (more than Domaine de Chevalier or Malartic-Lagravière tasted alongside). It's not a subtle Pessac-Léognan for sure, but there is adequate freshness and a sense of mineralité and tension on the finish. It will require at least a decade in bottle but long-term, this will be magnificent. Drink 2030-2065
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Neal Martin, May 2021, Score: 95-97
The 2020 Pape Clément, which I afforded an hour’s aeration, has a very precise bouquet of pure blackberry, cedar, mint and violet aromas, quite discreet but paradoxically intense; these aromas are very seductive. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe, lithe tannins framing wonderfully pure black fruit laced with crushed stone and a judicious touch of white pepper. Seamless in texture, this is a sophisticated Pape Clément in the making, an outstanding wine that should age brilliantly in bottle. Drink 2025 - 2060
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Antonio Galloni, December 2022, Score: 98
The 2020 Pape Clément is outrageously beautiful. Dark, virile and imposing, the 2020 is a rare vintage of Pape Clément that is vertical and statuesque in feel. Dark fruit, chocolate, new leather, licorice and cloves infuse the palate with tremendous depth. In a word: magnificent. Drink 2030-2050
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Antonio Galloni, June 2021, Score: 95-97
The 2020 Pape Clément is so impressive. Red cherry, plum, cedar, mint, tobacco, blood orange and rose petal all build as the 2020 opens in the glass. Vibrant and beautifully delineated, the 2020 has a ton to offer. The 2020 exudes purity, energy and breathtaking balance. It is one of the finest recent vintages I can remember tasting. Drink 2025 - 2045
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Wine Advocate, May 2021, Score: 96-98
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2020 Pape Clement comes barreling out of the glass with bold notes of cassis, plum preserves and licorice, giving way to scents of cedar chest, crushed rocks, charcoal and pencil lead. The medium to full-bodied palate is tightly coiled with beautiful tension and a firm, finely grained texture locking in the layers of black fruits and minerals, finishing with great length and energy. The blend this year is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot, aging mainly in French oak barriques, 66% new, with about 10% aging in large oak foudres. The wine will spend approximately 18 months in barrels. Drink 2028-2060
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James Suckling, April 2021, Score: 96-97
Superb aromas of blackberries, crushed stones, iodine and graphite. Full-bodied with ultra fine tannins and a balanced finish. Such length and beauty. Very close to the 2019 in quality.
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Decanter, May 2021, Score: 94
Powerful in colour, this has the glass staining red and purple colours that Pape Clément does so well. Touches of liquorice and cocoa beans, well handled, this gives power with one hand but takes it away with the other as the austerity and fresh mint leaf comes to the fore. Impressive, a really enjoyable, classically wrought but still full of concentration Pape Clément. Savoury, there is nothing too exuberant in the fruits but it exudes deft confidence. Drink 2028-2044
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Matthew Jukes, May 2021, Score: 17.5+
Muscular, spicy and very extracted, I am amazed that this wine seems to have retained some semblance of balance given the sheer scale of flavour on the palate. It is dry and hard on the finish, but the fruit is massive, too, and so I don’t see any reason why this wine will not even out, but it will take some time!
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Jancis Robinson, April 2021, Score: 16.5+
Dark purplish crimson. Not too heavy on the appetising nose even if a tad sweet on the palate with a rather demandingly drying, tart finish. But I know from experience that everything often falls into place by the time the drinking window comes around. But don't try to broach it before then. Drink 2029 – 2044
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Jeb Dunnuck, May 2021, Score: 97-99
Ranking with the top wines of the vintage, the dense purple-hued 2020 Château Pape Clement offers a sensational bouquet of pure crème de cassis interwoven with notes of liquid violets and classy oak. Possessing flawless balance, full-bodied richness, and ultra-fine tannins, it excels in this vintage and has a pretty, elegant, yet also layered and concentrated profile. It will drink well with just short-term cellaring yet evolve gracefully for 20-30 years. I was able to taste this on multiple occasions, and it always checked in near the upper end of the scale. This is a gorgeous wine in the making.
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Wine Cellar Insider, May 2021, Score: 95-97
Close to opaque in color, the wine explodes from the glass with smoke, cigar box, espresso bean, black cherry liqueur, chocolate ganache, bay leaf and black currants. Rich, lush, concentrated and deep, the wine is fleshy, powerful, intense and polished. Incredibly long, balanced and complex, the finish keeps on going long after the wine has left the glass. The range of dark red berries sits with you growing in intensity on your palate. This is the finest vintage of Pape Clement in years.
Producer
Château Pape Clément
Created in the 13th century by Pope Clément V, Château Pape Clément is one of the oldest estatesin Bordeaux. After he took the Papacy in 1306 and moved to Avignon, he relinquished the châteauto the church. This heritage remains with the château today in the form of a Papal cross on its label - a symbol that is shared by Châteauneuf du Pape producers in the Rhône Valley. Since 1985 with the arrival of Bernard Magrez, much in...Read more
Created in the 13th century by Pope Clément V, Château Pape Clément is one of the oldest estatesin Bordeaux. After he took the Papacy in 1306 and moved to Avignon, he relinquished the châteauto the church. This heritage remains with the château today in the form of a Papal cross on its label - a symbol that is shared by Châteauneuf du Pape producers in the Rhône Valley. Since 1985 with the arrival of Bernard Magrez, much investment has been made to increase the potential at this estate including extensive grape selection, stainless steel fermentation and additional new oak barrels for the château's ageing cellar.Read less
Region
Pessac-Léognan
Stretching from the rather unglamorous southern suburbs of Bordeaux, for 50 km along the left bank of the river Garonne, lies Graves. Named for its gravelly soil, a relic of Ice Age glaciers, this is the birthplace of claret, despatched from the Middle Ages onwards from the nearby quayside to England in vast quantities. It can feel as though Bordeaux is just about red wines, but some sensational white wines are produced in this area from a blend of sauvignon blanc, Semillon and, occasionally, muscadelle grapes, often fermented and aged in barrel. In particular, Domaine de Chevalier is renowned for its superbly complex whites, which continue to develop in bottle over decades. A premium appellation, Pessac-Leognan, was created in 1987 for the most prestigious terroirs within Graves. These are soils with exceptional drainage, made up of gravel terraces built up in layers over many millennia, and consequently thrive in mediocre vintages but are less likely to perform well in hotter years. These wines were appraised and graded in their own classification system in 1953 and updated in 1959, but, like the 1855 classification system, this should be regarded with caution and the wines must absolutely be assessed on their own current merits.
