2020 La Riviere
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Tasting notes
The 2020 Château De La Rivière is an outstanding Fronsac offering juicy darker, almost blue fruits, medium-bodied richness, classy spring flower and graphite aromatics, fine tannins, and a great finish. It shows the classic, fresher, focused, yet still concentrated style of the vintage and is well worth following over the coming 5-7 years, probably longer.
Critic scores
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Alistair Cooper MW, jancisrobinson.com
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
Espresso, chocolate-covered cherries and plums, with a hint of licorice is what you find in the perfume. On the palate the wine is soft, polished and showy, with a finish packed with fresh brewed, cocoa and sweet, dark red berries. Give it a year or so for the oak to better integrate and it should be even better. Drink from 2024-2036.
The 2020 Château de la Rivière sports a small reduction on the nose, but attractive with black plum, bilberry, iris petal and nuanced, crushed stone scents. The palate is medium-bodied with chalky tannins on the entry. I appreciate the salinity, almost briny quality of this Fronsac, not to mention the freshness and backbone on the finish. Enjoy this over the next decade.
The 2020 de La Rivière is a rich, heady wine, just as it was en primeur. Blackberry, chocolate, espresso, sweet spice, leather and dried herbs are front and center. This deep, brooding Fronsac has a ton to offer in a bold, pleasantly rustic style.