Bordeaux 2020 Cru Bourgeois at Three Years
Continuing on from yesterday’s report on around thirty Cru Bourgeois wines from the 2019 vintage, in this instalment of my canter through current offerings from the ranks of Bordeaux’s many Cru Bourgeois châteaux I come to the 2020 vintage.
No need for any great preamble today. I continue below with a brief recap (limiting myself to just three short paragraphs – I know you’re short on time) on the growing season and harvest, before I provide my opinions on the wines, backed up by my notes and scores.
Vintage Recap
The winter which ran from 2019 into 2020 was wet and mild, rather than cold and crisp, this being an increasingly common phenomenon in Bordeaux (for example I was there only last week, battling mist, rain and fog rather than an icy cold, and some cherry trees were already in blossom – in January). As a consequence the vines awoke before time, leading to an early budbreak, bringing the promise of an early harvest (good) but also opening the region to a prolonged period of frost risk (bad). Happily this was one year in which frost deigned from causing any significant damage, although it was not long before the vines were suffering with mildew.
