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2020 Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Medium Bodied
  • Cabernet Franc (40%), Cabernet Sauvignon (34%), Merlot (26%)
Not ready
Product: 20208013701
2020 Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

Description

Our initial allocation of Ch. Les Carmes Haut-Brion has sold out completely, though we have managed to secure a limited quantity of additional stock. Please note that this tranche comes at a higher price than the original offer.

Cabernet Franc 40%, Cabernet Sauvignon 34%, Merlot, 26%

Of all the properties on the Left Bank, Ch. Les Carmes Haut-Brion has the highest proportion of Cabernet Franc. This suits warmer vintages particularly well, as the higher percentage of Cabernet Franc gives the wine lift and a wonderful oyster and saline freshness.

Winemaker Guillaume Pouthier has many other tricks up his sleeve too, like beginning the fermentation with a pied de cuve (wild yeast starter), which can restrain the eventual alcohol level by as much as 1 degree. A proper infusion of a permanently submerged cap also contributes to a fascinating wine.

In 2020, the wine had sapid powdery tannins, and a sublime marriage of graphite and sweet cherry on the palate. Maverick and genius.

Drink 2025 - 2045

Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2020
Maturity Not ready
Grape List Cabernet Franc (40%), Cabernet Sauvignon (34%), Merlot (26%)
Body Medium Bodied
Producer Château les Carmes Haut-Brion

About this wine

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard - it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St.Emilion where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils - Cheval Blanc is the most famous Cabernet Franc wine in the world, with the final blend consisting of up to 65% of the grape.
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Pessac-Léognan

Pessac-Léognan

In 1986 a new communal district was created within Graves, based on the districts of Pessac and Léognan. Pessac-Léognan has the best soils of the region, very similar to those of the Médoc, although the depth of gravel is more variable, and contains all the classed growths of the region. Some of its great names, including Ch. Haut-Brion, even sit serenely and resolutely in Bordeaux's southern urban sprawl.
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Château les Carmes Haut-Brion

Château les Carmes Haut-Brion is a 10.3-hectare wine estate in Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank of Bordeaux. The property was established over 400 years ago. It takes its name from the Carmelites, the order of monks that tended it for almost 200 years. Once a little-known neighbour of the world-famous Châteaux Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion, things have changed rapidly here in recent years and it is today one of Bordeaux’s most exciting names. In 2010, the estate was acquired by Patrice Pichet, a French property developer. He quickly enlisted the dynamic Guillaume Pouthier as winemaker and director, and this has been a truly hot property ever since.
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