Château Bellefont BelcierChâteau Bellefont Belcier 2020

The finest wine I've tasted from this estate, the 2020 Château Bellefont-Belcier is an incredibly gorgeous blend of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep ruby/purple-hued, it offers a great nose of cassis, ripe black cherries, camphor, dried flowers, cedar, and forest floor. Bringing gorgeous richness, it nevertheless stays flawlessly balanced, with ultra-fine tannins and a great finish. The purity of fruit here is just about off the charts. While it already offers pleasure, it's going to benefit from short-term cellaring and have 20-25 years of prime drinking. This estate uses a five-day cold soak and fermentation, all in concrete, spanning 25 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel (four months on lees), and the wine spends 18 months in 30% new French oak, with the balance in once- and twice-used barrels. Yields in 2020 were also reasonable at 34 hectoliters per hectare.

Fascinating aromas of plums, peaches, lavender, violets, and other flowers. Hints of fresh herbs, too. So complex. Full-bodied yet so elegant and polished with a curated and focused palate. Hints of chocolate at the end. It’s so subtle and complex. Weightless on the palate. About 30% was aged in 30 hectoliter casks. 72% merlot, 18% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon.

Crushed herb and tobacco leaf along with red berry fruit enchant. Very pure and fresh, indeed gaining in coolness, with more cool blue fruit than either the 2018 or 2019, even if the alcohol level is the same. 30% new oak for ageing, plus 20% in ovoid wooden vats of 40-hectolitres, accentuating fruit purity. 'Our most precise vintage so far,' winemaking director, Jean-Christophe Meyrou, told me two years ago when tasting from barrel. It shines from bottle, but needs a few more years to enter a proper drinking window.

The 2020 Bellefont Belcier is a terrific follow up to the excellent 2019. Wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, licorice, bay leaf and spices, it's medium to full-bodied, seamless and refined, with lovely depth at the core, vibrant acids and a long, chalky finish. It's great to see one of Saint-Émilion's sleeping giants awakening.

The 2020 Bellefont-Belcier signals a major move away from the potent, brooding style of years past towards an expression of this site that seeks greater finesse. That is immediately apparent in the wine's feel and tannin profile. Dark plum, lavender, espresso, menthol, licorice and spice are all laced together. I would give the 2020 a few years to soften. It is super-promising, that much is clear.