Clos des Jacobins 2020

Dark and brooding on the nose, liquorice and blackcurrants, ripe and expressive. Direct and precise, this has a nice tension to it, all driving in one line from start to finish. The flavors are well controlled, clearly powerful with oak touches in the cinnamon, toast and clove edges, but this feels well worked. It’s not yet expansive, but it has some style. I like the dark juiciness here with milk chocolate touches—the acidity is well judged and gives a seductive energy. It’s clean and precise with a gorgeous salty minerality on the finish. Still a bit closed, but one to watch. Impressive.

Notes of ripe dark fruit, chocolate, graphite, dried flowers and wet earth. Medium- to full-bodied with plush, dusty tannins and firm texture. Structured and powerful. Juicy, blue-fruited palate with a polished finish. Extremely well done. Chalky at the end. Drink from 2026.

The 2020 Clos des Jacobins is a very pretty wine. It offers fine textural depth married to the aromatic complexity of Cabernet Franc, which adds attractive mocha, dried herbs, spice and floral notes. This deceptively mid-weight Saint-Émilion offers quite a bit of nuance, but it is the freshness, vibrancy and overall persistence that I find most notable. This is a strong showing.

The attention-seeking nose captivates with its display of flowers, cherries, allspice, licorice, and espresso. On the palate, the fruits are ripe, dark, sweet, and polished. The medium-bodied, soft-textured finish, with its silky tannins, vibrancy, ripe fruits, and a touch of crushed stones, is already hitting all the right marks. Drink from 2024–2040.

Dark ruby, purple reflections, faint ochre brightening on the rim. Nuances of ripe plums, blackberry confit, fine wood nuances, candied orange zest, some nougat caramel and vanilla. Juicy, elegant, fine fruit expression, ripe tannins, mineral and taut on the finish, good persistency, a food wine with ageing potential.

Bright dark purple colour. Pure, layered aromas of wet chalk, wild berries, blackberry, violet and fine spices. The palate shows good density and persistence with grainy extract, fine toast and mocha notes from the oak, crunchy dark fruit flavours, and a lingering, fresh finish. Nicely done.

Spiced dark cherries, iron, tobacco, and floral notes all define the 2020 Clos Des Jacobins, a medium- to full-bodied, pure, polished, and beautifully balanced 2020 with lots of character. The tannins are nicely polished and integrated, and it has plenty of mid-palate depth as well as outstanding length. While it’s unquestionably drinking nicely today, it’s going to benefit from just a few years of bottle age and keep for 10–15 years.

Deep purple with an opaque core and a purple rim. Heady bouquet of fresh morello cherry juice, blackberry jam and Dominican tobacco, underpinned by exotic woods and mocha cream. On the multilayered palate, a creamy texture, tightly knit tannic framework, granular extract richness and a very muscular body. In the concentrated finish, black-berried contours, sloe juice and supportive astringency — it can still gain further complexity!

Enjoyable, sweet berry fruits, chalky Parma violet floral notes, smoky oak—this is exuberant and appealing. Thibault and Magali Decoster, Hubert de Boüard consultant, 8.3ha of vines. Harvest September 21 to 28, 75% new oak for ageing.

91-92

Plenty of freshness in the bouquet of Clos des Jacobins, marked by notes of cherry, blackberry and pepper. On the palate, the wine shows good density and is supported by fine-grained tannins. They provide a solid backbone across the entire palate. A convincing wine in the way it reveals itself. Fruity, juicy finish with a saline touch.

A luscious, fleshy profile of black cherry with hints of cedar—the hallmarks of a refined, understated élevage—that supports the fruit beautifully without any sweetness, finishing with a touch of liquorice. This reflects deft handling of the vintage, measured and precise.