Fleur Cardinale 2020

The 2020 Fleur Cardinale is packed with dark fruit, chocolate, new leather, menthol and generous sweet oak. The 2020 has gained in body and complexity with élevage, exactly what is supposed to happen over time. Moreover, the 2020 has plenty of energy to balance its more exuberant leanings.

Score: 93 Antonio Galloni, Inside Bordeaux Maturity: 2023-2035 Date: 23 February 2023

The 2020 Fleur Cardinale is elegant and refined from the first taste. Bright red berry fruit, spice, blood orange and cedar lend terrific brightness. In 2020 Fleur Cardinale is elegant, polished and restrained. All the elements come together so gracefully. I imagine the 2020 will flesh out a bit over time. Today, it is a bit restrained, but that is not at all a bad thing. A second bottle was even better. The 2020 could very well turn out to be a jewel of a wine.

Score: 92 - 94 Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com Maturity: 2028-2040 Date: 01 June 2021

A ton of depth and body to this wine, you feel the cool blue fruit of a later-ripening terroir, plenty of tannic grip and bite, curls up with graphite, cigar box, liquorice root and a tiptoe balance of slate and baked earth. Plenty of juicy acidity on the finish, this is precise and elegant with a punch, and continues the run of successful vintages at Fleur Cardinale. A yield of 43hl/ha. 100% new oak. New cellar just finished up at the estate.

Score: 94 Jane Anson, Decanter.com Maturity: 2026 - 2044 Date: 18 May 2021

The 2020 Fleur Cardinale has a well-defined and intense bouquet of black cherries, crushed strawberry, star anise and light floral scents, gaining more composure as it opens in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent tannins, graphite-tinged black fruit and a thumping, powerful finish that leaves a peppery aftertaste. This will require 3–5 years in bottle just to shave some of its edges and is likely to need several years in the cellar. Tasted twice with consistent notes.

Score: 91 - 93 Neal Martin, Vinous.com Maturity: 2029 - 2050 Date: 27 May 2021

I tasted the 2020 Château Fleur Cardinale from three separate bottles, all of which showed brilliantly. Offering lots of red and black fruits as well as dark chocolate and rocky, earthy minerality, it’s a full-bodied, firm yet promising wine with terrific overall balance and length as well as purity of fruit. Short-term cellaring is the name of the game here, but it’s going to shine for at least two decades. It’s well worth seeking out.

Score: 92 - 94 Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com Date: 25 May 2021

Full bottle 1,345 g. Cask sample taken on 7 April. QR code gives a ton of background information such as that this is the first vintage vinified in their new cellars. They are experimenting with microvinifications and have bought two large 'amphorae'. Assemblage of the 2020 is 77% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. They are reforesting, in the RSE sustainability programme and collaborating with Franco-Senegalese poet Souleymane Diamanka. Ain't modern technology grand?! Very dark purplish crimson. Mellow, appetising, layered nose. Really very distinctive and luscious with those tannins very beautifully disguised beneath interesting, cashmere-textured fruit with some mineral notes on the end. Very successful. It certainly isn't soft but you could almost drink it tonight. Exciting and flattering. Lots of energy.

Score: 17 Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Date: 08 May 2021