Chateau Valandraud Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2020

Sporting a vivid purple hue, the 2020 Château Valandraud has incredible aromatics of red, blue, and black fruits intermixed with crushed stone, graphite, and a liquid rock-like minerality. On the palate, it's incredibly powerful, deep, and full-bodied, yet with remarkable structure, flawless tannins, and perfect balance. Another undeniably perfect wine from this incredible Château, it needs to be hidden in the cellar for a decade to hit maturity but will keep for 40+ years. Drink 2036-2066.

Very opulent and expressive aromas of black fruit and pine needles. So floral. Full-bodied with plush, velvety tannins and lots of fruit and texture. It goes on for minutes. Rich at the finish, but remains fresh and vivid. Superb. One of the great Valandrauds. Drink after 2027.

The 2020 Valandraud is a stunner. Rich, deep and explosive, the 2020 possesses dazzling intensity from start to finish. Silky tannins wrap around a core of plush dark red/black fruit, licorice, spice, mocha and new leather. Even with all of its intensity, the 2020 is bright and wonderfully focused. Sweet floral and blood orange accents liven up the explosive finish. Magnificent.

The 2020 Valandraud has a deep garnet-purple color. It opens with overtones of cedar and lifted Morello cherries before giving way to a core of fruitcake, blueberry pie, chargrill, and Indian spices, with wafts of licorice and cardamom. The big, concentrated, full-bodied palate quivers with tension and shimmers with energy, framed by beautifully ripe tannins, finishing long and opulent. Gorgeous.

Juicy, perfectly judged, delicious brambled fruits, this is exuberant without being overdone, just oozing with pleasure, inviting you to come on board. Expect waves of liqourice, powerful damson brambled jam, lime blossom, orange peel marmalade and saffron. This needs a good five more years in bottle before approaching, but you want this in your cellar. Founders Arnaud-Thunevin now in a 50% ownership with the Lefevre family from Sansonnet, 100% new oak, 49hl/ha yield.

The 2020 Valandraud has a sophisticated bouquet with vibrant blackberry, blueberry and wild strawberry scents laced with minerals and seamlessly integrated oak. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, fresh, tensile and focused, leading to a detailed and persistent finish. This should mature beautifully in bottle—a quite delicious Saint-Émilion from Jean-Luc Thunevin. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

If the 2019 vintage at this address was something of a guilty pleasure, the 2020 Valandraud is simply guilty as charged. Exhibiting aromas of jammy black fruits mingled with toasted coconut, spices and caricatural slatherings of new oak, it's full-bodied, rich and chewy, with generously extracted tannins that clamp down on the finish. All that oak and extract impedes access to the wine's generous fruit, rendering it less demonstrative and gourmand than its 2019 counterpart, and that's a pity, as recent vintages of Valandraud have been among the more successful of the few remaining hold-out "garagiste" wines of the Right Bank.