Chateau Les Gravieres 2020

Professional Ratings

• 95 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  Made from 100% Merlot, the 2020 Les Gravieres has a deep purple-black color, rolling out of the glass with ready-for-business scents of plum preserves, baked black cherries and blueberry pie, plus hints of violets, clove oil and camphor, with a waft of tree bark. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers velvety tannins and a lively backbone to support the generous black and blue fruits, finishing long and spicy.
  Barrel Sample: 93-95
• 94 Vinous
  The 2020 Les Gravières is a powerful, bold Saint-Émilion loaded with intense mineral and savory notes that play off a core of inky dark fruit. Blueberry jam, gravel, smoke, lavender, licorice and cloves add gravitas. Les Gravières is another impressive wine in the trio of 2020s I tasted from proprietor Denis Barraud. I very much like the vibrancy and tension here. –Antonio Galloni
  Barrel Sample: 92-94
• 92 James Suckling

  Notes of ripe plums and blackberries with licorice, dried orange peel and roselle flowers. Some cedar, too. Medium- to full-bodied with chewy tannins and an array of crunchy blueberries and dried herbs on the mid-palate. Flavorful and juicy yet slightly tight. Best After 2024

• 92 Jeb Dunnuck

  Coming from Denis Barrau's tiny 4.52-hectare vineyard planted on gravelly, sandy soils, the 2020 Chateau Les Gravieres offers a darker, richer, medium to full-bodied style as well as notes of black cherries, plums, toasted spice, and tobacco. Made from 100% Merlot that spent 14 months in 60% new French oak, it has beautiful integration of its fruit, tannins, and acidity, plenty of mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It's well worth seeking out and has a solid decade of prime drinking ahead of it. Best After 2023.