A tight, focused red with currants, chocolate, walnuts and some flowers. Medium-to full-bodied with ripe tannins. Pretty second wine.

This has a dark currant- and blackberry-filled core supported by a racy graphite spine that runs from start to finish, adding energy and cut. Reveals sweet tobacco, chestnut and tar hints on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Love the lead pencil, black berry and graphite aromas and flavors with iron shavings. It's medium- to full-bodied with very fine and polished tannins, that are poised and balanced. Classy. Almost drinkable but better in four or five years.

The 2020 Reserve de la Comtesse is a big, big wine. Black cherry, grilled herbs, lavender, licorice and smoke are some of the many notes that add to an impression of brooding intensity. This is a very serious second wine. Maybe too serious. Then again, Estate Director Nicolas Glumineau is quite clear in his ambition to want to make 100% Grand Vin. The inclusion of 10% Petit Verdot in this year's blend is felt in both the wine's flavor and structural feel.

Much like the grand vin, the 2020 Reserve de la Comtesse is charming and polished, bursting with aromas of dark berries, plums, rose petals and mint. Medium to full-bodied, suave and enveloping, it will drink well on release.

Ripe black fruits and rich tannins are piled high in this wine. It shows finesse in the tannins and in the blackberry flavors. This second wine is likely to age well.