Chateau Talbot 2020

The 2020 Talbot is every bit as impressive as it was from barrel. Strong Cabernet Sauvignon inflections open first in the bouquet, leading into a rich palate laced with expressive dark cherry and plum fruit. A Saint-Julien of power and stature, Talbot is fabulous in 2020. I love the breadth and overall intensity here, but there is just as much focus to keep things in balance. The 2020 is superb, certainly the best in recent memory

• Drinking Window: 2030 - 2050
• Reviewer Name: Antonio Galloni

Spicy, structured and dense, this is a complex, smoky and powerful wine. With polished fruit and structure, it comes from an increasingly impressive estate. Drink the wine from 2027.

• Reviewer Name: Roger Voss

Exuberant, with generous plum sauce, licorice root, blackberry compote and apple wood notes vying for attention, as graphite and cast iron accents drive along underneath. Reveals a little flash of exotic toast that snazzes up the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2030 through 2040. 18,000 cases made, 1,400 cases imported.

• Reviewer Name: James Molesworth

Coffee bean and smoked tobacco edging as I found with the Connetable 2020, followed up by precision-cut black cherry and cassis fruits. Great balance, gunsmoke and tomato leaf, an excellent follow up to the 2019, reflecting the intense work happening in the vineyard at this point. As you sit with this the generosity of the first moments takes a back seat to the grip and savoury St Julien balance, take you time and enjoy the crayon and slate on the finish. 60% new oak for ageing, Jean-Michel Laporte director.

• Reviewer Name: Jane Anson

Another gorgeous 2020, the 2020 Château Talbot has an almost Pauillac-like sense of graphite and lead pencil as well as ripe blackcurrant fruit, medium to full body, and abundant notes of smoked tobacco, leather, and dried herbs. It shows the more focused, almost austere, yet still ripe style of the vintage and has terrific mid-palate depth, ripe, polished tannins, and a great finish. There's an almost old school Bordeaux-like vibe in this beauty, but it's not rustic in any way, the balance is spot on, and it has loads of character. I'd be thrilled with bottles in the cellar. It's going to evolve nicely for two decades or more.

• Drinking Window: 2023 - 2043
• Reviewer Name: Jeb Dunnuck

The 2020 Talbot contains the highest degree of Cabernet Sauvignon to date (76%). It has developed a wonderful, classically-styled nose built around black fruit laced with mint and graphite. The palate is very well balanced and again, classic in style, a touch of wild mint intimating Pauillac instead of Saint-Julien. The mid-palate demonstrates the weight that was missing in vintages of the Nineties. Plenty of freshness on the finish - this is an impressive Talbot.

• Drinking Window: 2026 - 2055
• Reviewer Name: Neal Martin
• Review Date: February 2023