Chateau La Garde 2020
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Wine
Enthusiast - Vinous
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James
Suckling - Decanter
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Chateau La Garde 2020 is deep and bright in appearance. A more significant proportion of Merlot on clay-limestone has created a particularly mineral dimension to this poised, generous vintage. On the palate, the wine is characterised by intense, complex fruit, underpinned byimpressive tannic structure. With a hallmark smoky edge so typical of the great Pessac-Leognan terroirs, the wine is long and harmonious on the finish, a very great vintage for La Garde.
Blend: 65% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Initially smoothly textured, this wine then fills out with tannins and structure. It is rich, with dense blackberry fruits and acidity supported by wood aging. The wine will be ready from 2026.
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Vinous
The 2020 Château La Garde is a little muted at first, opening gradually to display blackberry, brine, pitted olives and light undergrowth scents, coalescing nicely with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied, crisp and focused, with fine-grained tannins, a fine bead of acidity and good grip on the finish. This estate has been a little inconsistent of late, but this is certainly one of the better vintages that I have tasted from barrel. -Neal Martin
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
James Suckling
Black berry fruit, gravel, bark, tobacco leaves and iodine here. It’s medium-bodied, savory and pleasantly austere, with fine tannins. Rusty elements.
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Decanter
Sappy; a little coffee edged, this is good and measured, with cassis. Easy to drink, powers down as these are pretty concentrated flavors for this estate - a reflection of the vintage.
Barrel Sample: 91 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep purple-black colored, the 2020 la Garde rolls out of the glass with bright, expressive notes of Morello cherries, redcurrant jelly and plum preserves, plus hints of dark chocolate, dried herbs and pencil shavings. The medium-bodied palate delivers mouth-filling, crunchy black fruits with a lively backbone and approachable, grainy tannins, finishing on an earthy note. Barrel Sample: 88-90
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Wine Spectator
Shows tobacco, sanguine and savory notes that weave in and out of the core of red currant and black cherry fruit. Reveals a light tarry streak that adds some grip to the finish. Nicely done. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.
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The origins of the Chateau date back to the 18th century, when Domaine de “Lagarde” already featured on the “carte de Cassini”, the first general map of France drawn by the Cassini family in 1756. The picturesque Charterhouse, built in 1732, was at that time surrounded by valleys and woods. The “Bourdieu de Lagarde” was then passed down through the Blanchard family, until its purchase in 1877 by the Lacoste family, who were negociants in Bordeaux. Vines were thus cultivated on this magnificent stony terroir and the winery was built in 1881. After the First World War, Louis Eschenauer, a well-known negociant on the Place de Bordeaux at the “Chartrons”, was looking for good quality vines in the Bordeaux area. He became interested in the vineyards around the summit of Domaine de La Garde, which he subsequently bought in 1920, and in so doing became the leading proponent of the wines produced in the Martillac area, where he also owned Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte. Sometimes referred to as Domaine de La Garde, Clos de La Garde, then Chateau La Garde, even at this time a crest featured on the estate’s wine labels inspired by weapons thought to be from the region of Aquitaine during the 100 years’ war, displaying the leopard with a lion’s head.