Bordeaux 2020 at Two Years: The Rest of The Right

It is time to mop up on the right bank now, so in this instalment of my Bordeaux 2020 in-bottle tasting report I take a look at all the remaining appellations beyond St Emilion and Pomerol. That means mostly Lalande-de-Pomerol and the St Emilion satellites, the combined appellations of Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac, and the various Côtes de Bordeaux appellations, mostly Castillon. And there is always a lone example of Côtes de Bourg as well; fans of the wines of François Mitjavile will have no difficulty in predicting which one.

If you are looking for the wines of the right bank (and the left bank, for that matter) with the catch-all Bordeaux appellation, they can be found in my Appellation Bordeaux report.

There is always a broad mix of quality and styles within this report, although the majority of wines are based around Merlot, many are rather modern in style, and I think of many of them as best being drunk relatively young, or at least in the midterm. I confess they are not wines made in a style I regularly hunt down for my own cellar – I would rather spend my time unearthing deliciously under-rated (and under-priced) Cabernet-dominated cru bourgeois wines, or more likely a highly rated Chinon – but I do have a few tucked away in the cellar in previous vintages. Favourites include those from the hand of the late Denis Durantou, in more recent times made by his daughter Noëmie, and their winemaker Olivier Gautrat, as well as one or two examples from the Fronsac appellation. So it is always good to see how these have fared in the most recent vintage.

With that in mind I have picked out one or two even I wouldn’t mind adding to the cellar.

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