Chateau Gloria 2020
- Vinous
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 11% Petit Verdot, 4% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
-
Vinous
The 2020 Gloria has an intense nose of penetrating blackberry, raspberry, crushed violet and crushed stone aromas. After 20 minutes, this just blossoms in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, fine acidity and just a touch of espresso and orange peel toward the finish, which remains taught and focused. What a wonderful Gloria! This might actually surpass its sibling, Château St. Pierre, this year. –Neal Martin
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Wine Enthusiast
Under the same ownership as neighboring Château Saint-Pierre, this estate produced a fine, stylish wine that will develop well. The outlines are already there with spice and black currant fruits underling the tannic structure.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
James Suckling
This is poised and elegant with notes of bitter chocolate, crushed walnuts, black peppercorns, blackberries and blackcurrants. It’s medium-bodied with silky tannins and layers of fresh black fruit. Classy.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Just about a perennial must-buy, the 2020 Chateau Gloria is another terrific vintage for this Saint-Julien chateau, which always seems to turn out a fabulous wine that sells for a great price. Sporting a deep purple hue as well as impressive aromatics of ripe blackcurrants, plums, camphor, smoked tobacco, and gravelly earth, it's a wine that blossoms with time in the glass. (I followed this bottle for multiple days.) Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has beautifully polished tannins, outstanding balance, and the more focused style of the vintage. Tasted twice with consistent notes. Best After 2027
-
Wine Spectator
Youthfully taut and well-structured, with singed apple wood and licorice root notes holding a core of red currant, dark plum and blackberry fruit in check for now. Reveals a nice racy graphite underpinning on the finish. One for the cellar. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.
-
Decanter
I love the clear depth to the blueberry and blackberry fruit on the nose here, a sense of elegance and glamour. Silky yet with a kick, this is enjoyable with a saltine cracker twist on the finish - an excellent St-Julien, but a little disappointing for this particular estate when considered next to recent vintages.
Barrel Sample: 92 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Rich, generous and demonstrative, the 2020 Gloria bursts with aromas of cherries, sweet berries, plum liqueur and cigar wrapper. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and generous, it will offer a broad drinking window. Best After 2023
Other Vintages
2022- Vinous
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Suckling
James - Vinous
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert
- Vinous
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Spirits
Wine &
-
Spectator
Wine
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
An icon of balance and tradition, St. Julien boasts the highest proportion of classed growths in the Médoc. What it lacks in any first growths, it makes up in the rest: five amazing second growth chateaux, two superb third growths and four well-reputed fourth growths. While the actual class rankings set in 1855 (first, second, and so on the fifth) today do not necessarily indicate a score of quality, the classification system is important to understand in the context of Bordeaux history. Today rivalry among the classed chateaux only serves to elevate the appellation overall.
One of its best historically, the estate of Leoville, was the largest in the Médoc in the 18th century, before it was divided into the three second growths known today as Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Léoville-Barton. Located in the north section, these are stone’s throw from Chateau Latour in Pauillac and share much in common with that well-esteemed estate.
The relatively homogeneous gravelly and rocky top soil on top of clay-limestone subsoil is broken only by a narrow strip of bank on either side of the “jalle,” or stream, that bisects the zone and flows into the Gironde.
St. Julien wines are for those wanting subtlety, balance and consistency in their Bordeaux. Rewarding and persistent, the best among these Bordeaux Blends are full of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco and licorice. They are intense and complex and finish with fine, velvety tannins.