2020 Château La Gaffelière, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Intense nose with good freshness. Quite distinctive! Lots of balsam savour on the end of the palate and sufficient acidity and tannin. Very, very different from the sweet, oaky stereotype. Polished tannins. One to watch… But only if your taste is 21st century rather than 20th century.

Drink 2027 - 2042

The 2020 Château La Gaffelière checks in as a 60/40 split of Merlot and Cabernet Franc that saw 50% new barrels. This medium to full-bodied, pure, elegant, seamless Saint-Emilion has lots of cassis and darker raspberry-like fruits, good mid-palate depth, ripe tannins, and solid complexity in its notes of graphite, sandalwood, and Asian spices. It doesn't bring the depth and richness of the top wines in the vintage, but it certainly shines for its complexity and balance.

Drink 2025 - 2040

Perfumed, delicate, generous and evocative all in equal measure. The fruit quality is excellent, so vibrant and lifted, shining out of the glass. Really bright with energy and dynamism. Lovely lifted expression full of rose petals, herbal-tinged raspberries, blackcurrants and plums. Chalky, creamy and salty, with a cooling freshness. Lots to like with classic elements as well as touches of the hot vintage. It’s not showing it’s best right now but this is delicious.

Drink 2025 - 2044

42hl/ha yield.

Limestone dominance from the first moment, with saffron and oyster shell along with juicy and well-controlled blueberry and raspberry fruit, and white pepper spice. Cabernet Franc dominant in the aromatics of savoury tomato leaf, peony and heather, this is sleek, silky and excellent quality. First vintage without the Grand Cru Classé on the label, as it withdrew from the ranking, and a clear loss to the classification.

Drink 2027 - 2042

Blackberry and black-olive aromas and flavors. Full-bodied with layers of fine tannins that fill the mouth. Expansive finish. The tannins are very fine, but abundant. Really impressive.

The 2020 La Gaffelière has an intriguing, complex nose, a mélange of red and black fruit, cigar box, undergrowth and mint, quite mercurial in the glass as it opens with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with lithe tannins, a beautiful seam of acidity and perhaps the most satin-like texture I have encountered on a young La Gaffelière. It sashays to a harmonious and precise finish and lingers with wonderful minéralité. This is a magnificent prospect. 

Drink 2028 - 2060

Deep purple-black colored, the 2020 La Gaffeliere gallops out of the glass with exuberant scents of crushed black plums, boysenberries and fresh blackberries, plus hints of eucalyptus, dark chocolate, crushed rocks and iron ore, with a waft of lavender. The medium to full-bodied palate shimmers with compelling energy, delivering layers of black and red berries with fantastic tension and finely grained tannins, finishing very long and wonderfully minerally.

Drink 2026 - 2050

The 2020 La Gaffelière is superb. Rich, dense and explosive. Black cherry, gravel, licorice, grilled herbs and menthol race out of the glass. Deep, pliant and explosive, the 2020 is magnificent. At this stage, the 2020 is an infant, but that won't be a problem in a few years. This vivid, statuesque Saint-Émilion is nothing short of thrilling.

Drink 2030 - 2060