Château Fleur Cardinale Édition Intergalactique 2020

Supple and utterly charming, with a juicy core, fine tannins and chalky edges. This is quite reserved still, not showing its full width but I love the detail and precision of the elements. Feels sleek and well made, dark and brooding, concentrated and ripe, with liquorice and clove showing the oak but there's a refinement in the texture and overall weight. It's broad shouldered but with a charming core. Clean and confident. It's potent with layers of flavour and texture, but structured and presented very well. Impressive.

Attractive aromas of blueberries and mulberries with graphite, dark licorice and crushed stones. Dark chocolate, too. Full-bodied. Impressive quality to the tannin structure that starts gently and glossy and continues to build, gaining power throughout the palate. Deep and dense with a velvety dark-fruited core. Really long, tense and persistent. 77% merlot, 18% cabernet franc and 5% cabernet sauvignon. Try after 2026.

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. (JR)

The 2020 Fleur Cardinale has a ripe and opulent nose with black cherries, kirsch and sous-bois; violet and inkwell touches emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins and fine delineation, though it hasn't entirely captured the complexity I felt it could have achieved from barrel. Still, it should age well in bottle, and a second tasting displayed a bit more nerve.

Deeply colored, the wine struts its chocolate-covered black cherries, plums, licorice, flowers, and espresso character with ease. Rich, full, lush, and long, the layers of fruit express length, purity, balance, and complexity, finishing with a long, supple, fruit-packed finish. As I wrote when tasted from barrel, this is the best Fleur Cardinale I have tasted in a few years. The wine blends 77% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink from 2024–2045.

Deep garnet with purple reflections, opaque core, subtle brightening at the rim. Delicate tobacco and savory herbal notes, an underlay of dark wild berries, black cherries, fine nougat and subtle oak; overall a rather shy bouquet. Complex, tightly knit texture, fine fruit expression, supporting ripe tannins, good freshness, a mineral finish and a chocolaty aftertaste. Shows good length and definite ageing potential.

A solid step up, the Grand Vin 2020 Château Fleur Cardinale checks in as 77% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This 22.5-hectare estate has been in the Decoster family since 2000 and consists of mostly clay over limestone soils and is located in the Saint-Etienne de Lisse region of Saint-Emilion. From healthy yields of 43 hectoliters per hectare, with malolactic fermentation in tank followed by 13 months in 90% new French oak, it has a juicy, pure, medium to full-bodied style that shows the classic, elegant style of the vintage beautifully. Offering lots of cassis-like fruit, notes of truffly earth, spring flowers, and violets, well-integrated acidity and tannins, and just a beautifully balanced mouthfeel, it's going to benefit from just 2-4 years of bottle age and will evolve nicely through 2040. It's another beautiful wine from this estate.

Well balanced, with momentum and energy from beginning to end, a thoroughly enjoyable wine that layers pristine black and blue fruits with crushed rock, sage and fennel spice. A 23.1ha estate in one of the cooler sections of St Emilion, owned by the Decoster Family, with Jean Philippe Fort as consultant. 43hl/ha yield. 100% new oak. First year in the new cellar.

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Fleur Cardinale opens a little broody and closed, offering glimpses at graphite, chargrill, black olives, and mossy tree bark scents over a core of baked plums, blackberry preserves, and Indian spices. Medium to full-bodied, the palate reveals a velvety texture with loads of savory nuances coming through among the generous black fruit layers, finishing with great length.

91-92

Aromas of ripe strawberry and forest floor dance in the nose, capturing your attention. On the palate, soft red fruits with a lively, zesty acidity.

Fleur Cardinale moves a little closer to its terroir each year. It gains in authenticity and character. The bouquet, for example, reveals chalky nuances, while the palate stands out for its finesse and fine-grained tannins. Only the fruity expression on the palate is set back and not persistent enough. Some time in the cellar will help optimize all of this. A well-defined Fleur Cardinale with an optimal symbiosis between freshness and density

With its round, opulent substance, showing good density built around juicy black fruit, Fleur Cardinale stands out for its tannic framework, paired with a clear sense of precision. At this stage, the wine’s texture is a little stricter than usual. This 2020 gains in tension what it gives up in sensuality.