Château Ormes de Pez 2020

Fresh and direct, with lilac and savory notes running with a core of damson plum and red cherry coulis. Reveals a piercing iron note on the sneaky long finish. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2024 through 2034.

Green pepper, liquorice, pencil lead, black fruits, cedar, toast and caramel. Really quite high acidity on the palate, striking, making the biggest impact with juicy, almost sweet red fruits that give a wide, open and generous beginning. Lots of minerality – a crushed-stone texture and grip that mark the palate. Subtle detail and lightly framed.

Bitter chocolate, blackberries, dried mint and tobacco leaves on the nose. Firm and linear, with a medium body and tight tannins. Tangy acidity. Sharp and clear-cut. 54% merlot, the highest percentage ever, the rest cabernet sauvignon with a touch of petit verdot. Better in 2025.

The 2020 Ormes de Pez has a more open nose than its peers, leaning more toward red fruit as hints of potpourri and rosemary add complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins. There is quite a lot of extraction noticeable in this Saint-Estèphe, as well as a grippy, saline finish. It will require several years of cellaring before it offers drinkability. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

Nuances of smoke, chocolate, and spice, along with a bushel of ripe blackberries and currants, offer their fragrance effortlessly. On the palate, the wine is even better, with layers of ripe, sweet, creamy black and red fruits, olives, and cocoa that hold your interest. This is going to be delicious with only a modicum of aging. Drink from 2024–2038.

A blend of 54% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, the 2020 Château Ormes De Pez offers up a great perfume of red and black currants, sweet tobacco, sandalwood, and spice. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, with ripe tannins and good overall balance, it's another terrific 2020 that offers pleasure even today yet will evolve for 15+ years if well stored.

Kunz barrel sample 2021: medium-bodied, austere bouquet, cherries, blackberries, licorice. Bourgeois palate with good fruit, finely sandy tannins, good aromatics, a firm, grippy structure, and a dry, austere finish.

Medium-bodied, austere bouquet, cherries, blackberries, licorice. Bourgeois palate with good fruit, fine sandy tannins, good aromatics, a firm core structure, and a dry, slightly bitter finish. 17/20 2025 - 2038

Love this wine, with its punchy stamp of St Estèphe, with powerful black fruits and fresh acidities, both enticing and appealing while extremely unfussy. The tannins are serious and a little chunky, but have plenty of character and there is appealing gunsmoke and salinity on the finish. 3.69pH, 45% new oak.

Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Ormes de Pez features delicate scents of juicy red and black cherries, mulberries, and candied violets, leading to hints of cloves and dusty soil. The medium-bodied palate is coated with lively black and red fruits, supported by lightly chewy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing on an earthy note.

Always of admirable craftsmanship, the wine is particularly good in 2020, with truly superb brightness and an admirable definition of the fruit. Elegant yet intense, with refined tannins, it is already irresistible.

A very fine, elegant nose with floral notes of iris and violet, along with discreet fruit. The palate shows great finesse, supported by a very pure framework and velvety tannins. The finish lingers at length on notes of licorice and menthol.

Ormes de Pez benefits from a clay-limestone terroir where Merlot thrives, followed by sandy-limestone soils that suit Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine shows good density with fine, perfectly integrated tannins. The limestone character of the terroir comes through in chalky nuances perceptible both on the nose and on the palate. A dense, powerful wine with a finish ideally extended by its structure. A characterful Ormes de Pez that deserves some cellaring.

For the past six years, the proportion of Merlot has been increasing, bringing greater stability, roundness, and body to this already charming cuvée. The expressive, fruity nose leads to a fleshy, fresh, and easy-drinking palate, framed by lively, ripe tannins. The fine, licorice-tinged, powdery flavor profile is already a pleasure to enjoy.

92–94. Barrel Sample. Owned by the Cazes family of Lynch-Bages in Pauillac, this is a fine wine that continues the backbone of this estate. With its tannins firmly in place, sustaining the black plum skin flavors, the wine has fine medium-term potential.