Wine Review: Chateau Talbot Saint Julien 2020

Today we are tasting a typical wine from the commune of St Julien, It is from the fourth growth estate Chateau Talbot and is from the 2020 vintage, with our Wine Director David Allen, Master of Wine.

Chateau Talbot is a well-regarded estate in the Saint-Julien appellation of the Haut-Médoc, just north of the city of Bordeaux. The estate was ranked a fourth growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification. The Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant grand vin is known for its spicy aromas and silky texture when young, but also renowned for its consistent ability to age well.

The blend of the wine in 2020 was 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot & 3% Petit Verdot.

To find out more about this wine, its pricing and where to buy it follow this link to the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/talbot+st+julien+medoc+bordeaux+france/2020

#winesearcher #winetasting #saintjulien #talbot #chateautalbot #bordeaux #clarets #medoc #hautmedoc #redbordeaux #winelovers #masterofwine #cruclasse

Hi there today I’m lucky enough to be looking at a wine from San Julian so we’re on the medok in Bordeaux this is Shadow tlbo it’s the 2020 vintage and this is a fourth growth aqurium crew class from the 1855 classification now the name tolbo or tolber if you’re

English uh commemorates John Tolbert who was the first Earl of shury and he was the person who by losing the battle of Castile in 1453 seeded Bordeaux back to the French and as a result in commemoration of this the the estate Bears his name Tolbert is a a large state right in

The heart of San Julian and in 1917 it was bought by the cordier family somebody called desire cordier purchased the property and it’s been in the family ever since today somebody called Nancy binong cordier runs it along with her husband Jean Paul and her children who assist with the the management of the

Property now the cordier name is is famous in bordo I mean at one stage they owned a fairly major negoti firm and had quite a few high quality chatau today they do have another Shad in Bordeaux they also own a Chateau in in provance where they make wine at both but these

Days they no longer have an interest in the the nego company that bears their name while the shatow building at chatow tlbo is right in the heart of of San Julian it’s sort of Inland from sanjulian bashel the little town there and and also Estates such as LEL Barton

Le The Vineyards actually lie sort of from that mid portion up to the north where they come into contact with Vineyards belonging to I I believe Pichon Baron and possibly some Vineyards belonging to Shadow leita as well in On the Border in Pak not surprisingly the soils here are are really sort of

Classic medok soils it’s deep medane gravel over fossil Rich Limestone so really Frable soils that that warm up quickly suit the long rening cabinet soval but don’t hold too much water near the surface yet have water reserves deep down so in in hot vintages like 2020 there are water

Reserves for the old Vines whose Roots can get right down to the Limestone subsoil the estate is I believe somewhere in the region of 10 hectares in total 97.6 hectares are currently planted to vine according to the information I have for 2020 the blend for this wine favored cabinet sovo I

Believe there’s about 66% of cabinet sovo planted in the vineard but this 76% in the blend there’s 21% of Mero and 3% of petty vau along with that as well so fairly classic s Julian blend but slightly favoring caban s average a Vine age is about 43 years and that would

Have been important in 2020 because although 2020 started off with a really wet but quite warm spring that advanced S of flowering and Bud bird it gave quite a lot of pressure in terms of fungal disease in The Vineyards early on 2020 was really marked by very hot arid

Summer there were heat spikes and so it was those vines that had mature root systems that could get down to the water reserves in the lime stone subsoils that prospered younger vines that that didn’t have that extensive a system of roots didn’t do so well into in 2020 the Arid

Summer was broken in August when there was some rain and that gave gave much needed relief to the vines conditions in September were beautiful I’ve seen it described as a golden Autumn there was sufficient cool evenings to ensure that acidity was retained quite well and alcohol levels stayed in Balance so you

You’ve actually got L concentrated fruit flavors plentiful tannins in fact producers had to be careful not to extract too heavily but there was fresh acidity and the sugar levels achieved gave relatively moderate alcohols so as a result you’ve got quite intense wines but with reasonable

Balance so let’s have a look at the wine shall we firstly that is virtually opaque it’s a deep dark even even though it’s s of coming up for four years old old still with with purple notes at The Rim I’m swirling it there the wine has 13.3% alcohol according to its analysis

Says 13.5 on the label it’s clearly got some structure it’s it’s forming tear quite readily and its color as such that it’s actually staining the glass so there’s certainly plenty of concentration in the white so let’s see what we make of the aroma shall we the Aromas run sort of a gamut right

Through from some ciss notes there which have some some nice lift s ciss and red current there’s some freshness but then coming through to riper black cherry and then through to really sort of quite full Rich ripe dark Plum almost the first notes of development there perhaps

A little bit of forest floor or perhaps a little bit of sort of tobacco leaf this certainly is a sort of a Dusty graphite undertone to the Aromas so let’s taste shall we on the palette you start with a concentrated Cassis fruit one of the natures of Cassis is it’s really lovely

Fresh acidity and there is actually really quite a a lovely interplay between the acidity and the structure there it’s almost it’s making me think of sort of red currants and it is it’s that concentrated ciss Elderberry that sort of concentration and there’s a sort of a a structured note as well it’s very

Evident from the outset these very fine grainy tannins right the way through there are notes of coffee in terms of slight bitterness in the mid pallet there’s a lovely smooth sort of Coco note there’s a deep rich dark fruit core it’s not quite quite to the EXP extent of being

Licoricey because the acidity is giving it more lift than that it’s it’s a a sort of a concentrated Black Plum damson sort of note there are dusty notes and notes of graphite to the four and I think that’s where the the oak is is showing itself because there’s not

Really a particularly cedy note the Finish is going on to be long lasting that’s where perhaps I’m getting a a concentrated bitter licorice note and notes of graphite there’s a real concentration to the Finish that you feel hasn’t quite opened up yet to the to the extent of the the mid pallet in

Terms of the structure as I say it’s fine and it’s giving grip but it’s it’s not harsh and astringent at all there is some suppleness in those tannins they haven’t quite got to a velvety smoothness yet and there’s some really lovely Harmony and integration of the different elements in this you start

With the the standouts the ciss maybe a little bit of red current as well that’s of freshness coming through and then we’re getting through to a core of much more concentrated dark fruit that follows onto that sort of structured finish with with with graphite and perhaps a tiny Touch of Cedar there the

Alcohol is nicely inbalanced there’s some some reasonable warmth but it’s not hot the acidity I guess is giving length to the pallet although maybe the stru the structure is just bringing the finish up a little short at present I mean clearly this is a wine that ideally

You’d leave for another four or 5 years before seriously drinking especially as here I’ve got this in a magnum so its development will be slowed by the fact it’s in a larger format bottle but yes certainly I would I would think you’d be very happy to leave this another six or seven years

And probably in terms of its aging capacity that would probably stretch out to something like sort of 20 years or so so if not longer so yes I think this is quite a classic San julen there’s that quite clean ciss underpinned by notes of rich dark Plum there’s fine structure

But all of it is lifted by good acidity and the alcohol is nicely restrained so yes I think this is a good example of a sanan I think it’s a good example of how soundly made a wine tlbo reliably is it’s one of those Estates that regularly produces wines of high quality typicity

And what is for a class growth wine good value and part of that value is the dependability I think that that you know it’s going to be an enjoyable drink you know it’s going to be age-worthy so yes thank you very much I hope you found this tasting of interest if you’ve

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