| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pauillac |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
This Pauillac is produced by the team who make Lafite, and it has been on top form in recent vintages, receiving impressive scores from the critics. The vineyard is 76 hectares in size and planted with 67% Cabernet Sauvignon and 33% Merlot.
The most underrated wine in the Lafite stable these days has put in another strong performance with the 2020 Duhart-Milon, as this somewhat cooler, later-ripening site is well adapted to warmer vintages. Unfurling to reveal aromas of cassis, plums, cigar wrapper, loamy soil and violets, it's medium to full-bodied, broad and layered, with polished tannins, terrific depth at the core and a long, sapid finish. 2025 - 2050
This is so refined with beautiful currant, berry and some subtle chocolate and coffee. It’s full and very subtle with fine tannins that have a long finish. Such purity and finesse with structure. Fresh and savory. 72% cabernet sauvignon and 28% merlot.
A blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Merlot, the 2020 Duhart-Milon is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs a little shaking to wake up notes of juicy blackberries, black raspberries, and redcurrant preserves, followed by suggestions of damp soil and graphite. The light to medium-bodied palate is soft and approachable, with lovely red and black fruit layers and a lively finish. This comes from the first vinification in the new cellar at Duhart.
Classically styled, restrained yet muscular, very much showing the linear identity of Duhart, pure and to the point, with cassis, blackberry, graphite, liquorice and slate-scrape tannins, rounded out by raspberry leaf and salt-tang minerality on the finish. The first full year of new cellar, excellent stuff from the team at DBR Lafite, technical director Eric Kohler. Harvest September 9 to 29.
The 2020 is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Merlot. The yield is 36hl/ha and the abv under 13.5% this year. Deep ruby colour. Exotically perfumed with notes of anise and nutmeg, and a core of fresh fruit underneath. The palate is cool and fresh, full of graphite, hedgerow fruits and cedar. The tannins are refined and measured, giving an elegant texture and allowing the fruit to push through. A wine of finesse rather than power.
72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot. Cask sample.
Power and definition but elegance as well. Tight and retrained initially then opens to blackcurrant with aeration. Fruit dense on the palate, a profusion of super-fine tannins providing a velvety texture as well as freshness. Long ageing. Possibly the best Duhart yet. (JL) 13%
Drink 2028 – 2045
(72% CS, 28% M; 65% harvest)
Dense, mineral-etched, fine Cabernet Sauvignon nose; full but restrained in proportions, fresh in acidity, very fine in tannin, a lovely harmonious balance; freshly, sweetly ripe, long and fine-textured to taste, restrained in the Lafite mode, remarkably supple, full of ease and charm, but no lack of class, with a fine, almost stony, mineral background and superb length. A most complete, understated Duhart, with effortlesssly integrated acidity and beautiful tannins. So fine-textured that it will be accessible relatively early. A first-rate expression of the year. 2028–40+.
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2020 Duhart-Milon comes skipping out of the glass with vibrant notes of crushed black cherries, black raspberries and plum preserves, plus an exotic spice undercurrent of cumin seed, star anise and cardamom, with an earthy touch of black truffles. The medium-bodied palate delivers mouth-coating, juicy black fruits with a plush texture and just enough freshness, finishing long and spicy.
The blend this year is 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Merlot, with the alcohol coming in at 13.1%.
Drink 2024-2039
Restrained and sombre at first, but carefully constructed, with a rippling muscular texture, full of firm tannins with bright acidities underneath. Like the precision and the slightly austere cool blue fruits, pencil lead and liquorice root. Elegant, precise, feels very Pauillac in its density combined with fine tannins that have life and lift on the finish. Harvest September 9 to 29. First vintage in the new cellar.
Drinking Window 2028 - 2042
