2020 Château Léoville Poyferré

Community Tasting Notes (24) Avg Score: 95.1 points

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  4/13/2024 - englishman's claret wrote: 95 Points

  This is my third encounter with the 2020 Léoville Poyferré, this time at home with plenty of time to chart its course - and thank goodness for that. This has certainly become much easier to taste than it was just over a year ago, the nose more expressive a big, naturally ripe boysenberry, cassis, and lilac nose, managing to stay just shy of over-ripeness. The tannin, which previously seemed a bit grating, seems to match the large-scale body now and the ripe coolness of the 2020 vintage comes through. A long, blue and black fruit finish bodes well for the future. 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot brought in between Sept 14-30.
  
  This is a wine that really seemed the odd man out among the St. Juliens at the UGC in early 2023 and which benefitted from an unhurried evaluation, checking in over the course of 24 hours. I think there's little doubt that the Rolland influence shone through in 2020 in a way that it didn't so much from 2016-2019, say, and one wonders if it might have achieved a little more elegance with a little gentler extraction. Yet it's OK to be different, too, and with the benefit of watching this unfold over time (closing down hard after an hour of air, shining at hour 12, fading at hour 24) it's easier for me to be optimistic about this developing into an excellent wine, even if it marches a bit to the beat of its own drum among the St. Julien grands crus classes.
  
  Drinking from 2040 on. 94-96 point potential.

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  2/5/2024 - Wine G Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Early note here… primary and quite luxurious, savory dark fruit straight away on the palate. While not overly giving out the shoot on the nose I can get whiffs of the Quality perfume… it comes and goes. Surely it is coiled up
  Still. A bit of oak, but to me is quite restrained vs the 2019 Barton I finished up today. 94+

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  12/12/2023 - iBurg1229 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  13.5% ABV. Deep ruby appearance. Decanted for 2.5 hours. Drinking for scientific purposes. Also, shout out to the folks at Poyferre for giving us this sexy black and gold “Cuvelier 100th anniversary” bottling for the ‘20 vintage.
  
  Notes of red and black bramble fruit, nutmeg, coffee grounds, cedar, lead pencil, damp earth. Tannins a bit rough around the edges and distracting. Acidity is fine, good enough to hold up to the fruit. Length of finish is good, not great. Alcohol isn’t integrated seamlessly - I detected some heat in the back palate.
  
  I really like the concentration, polish and balance of the fruit here. However, this is a bit hard to read and very foursquare at this point. The oak influence is borderline overpowering as well. Overall, it’s good, but I’m not sold on this given the bottle price and pedigree of Poyferre. If you want a Saint Julien, Langoa Barton is half the price and to me, outperforms Poyferre in ‘20 at least right now. This needs a LONG decant if you want to open now but it really needs a good amount of time in the cellar to round into form in my opinion.

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  11/24/2023 - wineappellation Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Purple flowers, black and blue fruits, right amount of oak and underlying minerals.

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  9/30/2023 - winemanintheden Likes this wine: 92 Points

  From the 2020 Bordeaux Release - Day 2. The wines included: Grand Puy Ducasse, Grand Puy Lacoste, La Fleur de Gay and Léoville Poyferré. All were unique in their own way. Nice to taste different regions side by side as you can distinguish the differences in nose and palette right away.
  
  The Léoville Poyferré was obviously young and tight. Nose of red fruit, meat juices, oak, nuts. Very tight tannins with spicy characters. Other than those early notes, it’s not budging. Potential is absolutely present but otherwise much too early to access at this point. Future 95 pts wine. Today nothing past 92.

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