2020 Le C de Carmes Haut Brion

Great purity and depth of fruit, with excellent weight and depth to the blue and black fruits, along with the signature salinity that you find in Carmes. Finesse and drinkability. 32% stems, 22% new oak, with the rest large oak casks and 10% amphora for ageing, 3.65ph, from vines located in Martillac. This will stay at the estate for another 12 months before release. One of the best 2nd wines of the vintage.

The 2020 Le C des Carmes Haut-Brion needed 10–15 minutes in the glass before it gained clarity, eventually delivering ripe black fruit and hints of dark chocolate and licorice, quite heady and ebullient. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe, saturated tannins that frame the dark chocolate and allspice-infused black fruit. There’s plenty of flesh toward the finish, although this year I find quite a difference between this and the Grand Vin.

The second wine of Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, the 2020 Le C Des Carmes Haut-Brion should end up being an outstanding wine. Displaying a character that’s not too dissimilar from the Grand Vin, plenty of red and blue fruits, peppery herbs, spice, and sappy flower notes emerge on the nose, and it’s medium-bodied, with good acidity and silky tannins. Just a pretty, balanced, and elegant wine, it’s going to drink nicely for 10-15 years.