Bordeaux 2020 Primeurs: St Julien

In this report I take a look at more than 20 wines from the St Julien appellation in the 2020 vintage. I am being a little vague in the exact number because at the time of tasting not all the samples are in. At some point during the next few days I will add some notes and scores on the wines from Jean-Hubert Delon’s two properties, Château Léoville-Las-Cases and Clos du Marquis. Ideally I would wait, but given the fact that the first 2020 Bordeaux releases are now appearing I think I should crack on with publishing my notes and scores (postscript: these notes have since been added). At the time of publication this report features notes on the other leading second growth châteaux of the appellation, as well as all the other St Julien classed growths, and more than a handful of other smaller and rarely encountered domaines.

The majority of the St Julien vineyard is classified, and so it perhaps no surprise that the majority of the barrel samples tasted here arrived in one shipment from the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, while others mostly came from leading left bank consultants such as Eric Boissenot and Antoine Médeville of Oenoconseil, these two deliveries arriving with a day of each other (which certainly made for an intense tasting schedule). As a consequence of this I tasted many of the leading wines described here on a single morning, and it was the first left bank commune I looked at where I had a real sense of excitement about the vintage. I find St Julien sometimes thrills in a way that Pauillac or St Estèphe do not manage, and this seemed especially true in this vintage.

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