Chateau Lagrange 2020

Professional Ratings

• 95 Jeb Dunnuck

  Coming from depressingly low yields of just 26 hectoliters per hectare (the lowest since 1991), the 2020 Chateau Lagrange checks in as 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot that was raised in 60% new French oak. It's a gorgeous, complete Saint-Julien offering remarkable purity in its cassis, violets, chocolate, and leafy tobacco-like aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, with terrific balance, a pure, focused mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and beautifully integrated oak, it's going to benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and cruise over the following 2+ decades in cold cellar. Best After 2027.

  Rating: 95+

• 94 James Suckling

  Attractive nose of blackberries, blackcurrants, walnuts, ink and kaffir leaves. It’s medium- to full-bodied, firm and structured, with chewy and tight tannins. Dark and intense, with a long and persistent finish. Turns to graphite and cedar. Needs time to open and soften.

• 94 Wine Enthusiast
  This wine, with its red plum and spice flavors has an initial smoothness that is belied by the wine's dry, firm core. Its dark tannins are there to ensure a fine future.
  Barrel Sample: 92-94
• 93 Decanter
  A perky, bright and enjoyable Lagrange, showing some angularity and austerity to the tannins but at the same time it is bright with clarity of direction, firm and concentrated fruits and juicy on the finish. A little subdued, but this is a quality Lagrange with extremely carefully placed fine tannins and fruit - it shows the essence of St-Julien balance, and one that will not need the full 10 years to come around. 50% less volume than usual.
  Barrel Sample: 93
• 93 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  COMMENTARY: The 2020 Chateau Lagrange shows excellent elegance from start to finish. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of red and blackcurrants, chalky notes, and shading of oak. Try it with a lightly-spiced rotisserie chicken. (Tasted: January 27, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
• 92 Wine Spectator

  Very sleek, with a racy iron edge driving through in lockstep with cassis and cherry coulis flavors. Reveals a subtle black tea accent on the finish, with the minerality eventually holding center stage. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2024 through 2036.

• 91 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The 2020 Lagrange (Pomerol) wafts from the glass with aromas of sweet berries, cherries, loamy soil and new oak, followed by a medium to full-bodied, velvety and fleshy palate with a gourmand core of fruit framed by powder tannins that assert themselves on the finish. Best after 2025.