Three Serious St.-Émilion Reds from $19.99 to $39.99
The 2020 vintage in Bordeaux is exceptional. While it’s easy to buy top-rated bottlings from this great year in the $150 to $500 range, it’s more challenging - and often quite thrilling - to seek out highly rated wines under fifty bucks.
Today, we bring you three delicious 2020 St.-Émilion reds with scores ranging from 91 to 97 Points. All priced under $40, they are EXCEPTIONAL buys. Check out the rave reviews, then quickly click the Big Yellow Button to get your order in. Supplies are limited and these highly-rated Right Bank gems will go fast!
2020 Château Chante-Alouette
St-Émilion, Bordeaux, France
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This is textbook Bordeaux, and it’s more serious than its $19.99 price suggests. A blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, the wine is initially reserved, showing subtle aromas and flavors of black fruits, tobacco, cedar and calcaire minerality. With air, this youthful red quickly opens to reveal a suave medium-bodied texture, grippy tannins, lively acidity, and a long finish.
Once it's been given the chance to breathe, this is the kind of wine that shocks wine drinkers. How can something so layered and structured be only $20? Only from Bordeaux!
We are a solid 91 Points. Here’s the 91-Point review from Wine Advocate and the 89-Point notes from Jeb Dunnuck. Jeb really needs to give this one another try!
“Aromas of blackberries, sweet cherries and licorice preface the 2020 Chante Alouette, a medium-bodied, ample and fleshy wine that's supple, suave and seamless. This charming, gourmand Saint-Emilion is the first vintage produced by the young Antoine d'Arfeuille. Drink Date: 2023 - 2035.”
- 91 Points, Wine Advocate (4/6/2023)
“The 2020 Château Chante Alouette checks in as 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc that was raised in one-third new French oak. It's another pure, elegant 2020 with medium-bodied aromas and flavors of black raspberries, mulberries, spicy wood, and dried savory herbs. Nicely concentrated and balanced, with a great mouthfeel as well as ripe tannins, it needs 2-3 years of bottle age to develop additional complexity, but it’s an attractive, elegant, satisfying Saint-Emilion that will drink nicely for a decade. Maturity 2023 - 2033.”
- 89 Points, Jeb Dunnuck (3/29/2023)
Looking online we found two listings for this small production red, both at $25. Our price is 20% less. Grab a few bottles or a case to drink now and over the coming 10 to 15 years. This has the stuffing to develop beautifully!
Vin Chicago Price: 19.99
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2020 Château Poesia
St-Émilion, Bordeaux, France
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We featured this hugely rated gem from Hélène Garcin earlier this year and are thrilled to have been able to track down a few more cases!
"Based on 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 Chateau Poesia has a wonderful purity and freshness in its ripe blue fruits, tobacco, cedar, and spring flower-like aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, it has good acidity, ultra-fine tannins, beautiful overall balance, and just a classy, seamless, incredibly elegant profile. It's another gorgeous wine from this incredible team. Maturity 2026 - 2046."
- 96 Points, Jeb Dunnuck (3/29/2023)
“The 2020 Poesia opens in the glass with attractively pure aromas of cherries, raspberries, rose petals and violets. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and seamless, it's vibrant and mineral, with bright acids and a long, saline finish reflecting the shallow soils and limestone bedrock that define this later-ripening site. Drink Date: 2025 - 2045.”
- 93+ Points, Wine Advocate (4/6/2023)
“The 2020 Poesia is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. It sings of wild blueberries, redcurrant jelly and black raspberries, with hints of red roses, crushed rocks, and fertile loam. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is tightly wound with fine-grained tannins supporting the vibrant red and black fruit layers, finishing on a persistent perfumed note. Drinking: 2026-2052.”
- 95 Points, The Wine Independent (3/12/2023)
Median online retail is just under forty bucks. It is an absolute steal at that price. Our small supply will go fast.
Vin Chicago Price: 35.99
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2020 Château Laroque
St-Émilion, Bordeaux, France
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"A blend of 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 Laroque is deep garnet-purple in color. A little subdued to begin, offering subtle notes of crushed rocks and damp soil, it opens out to a core of ripe black and red plums and fresh blackberries, plus a fragrant waft of lilacs. The full-bodied palate is bursting with taut, muscular black fruits and amazing tension, framed by ripe, rounded tannins, and finishing with great length and depth. Drinking: 2028 - 2058."
- 97 Points, The Wine Independent (3/12/2023)
“The 2020 Laroque has turned out nicely, bursting with aromas of cherries, minty blackberries, licorice and bay leaf. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and layered, with good depth at the core, chalky but refined tannins and a saline finish, it's another strong performance for this rising star of Saint-Émilion. Drink Date: 2023 - 2040.”
- 93 Points, Wine Advocate (4/6/2023)
"From an estate that has been on an incredible run of late, largely due to the talents of director David Suire, the 2020 Chateau Laroque shows the cooler, limestone-driven style of the terroir beautifully and has a clean, focused style in its darker (almost blue) berry fruits as well as chalky minerality, violets, spice, and floral nuances. Medium-bodied on the palate, this focused, straight, remarkably pure Saint-Emilion has terrific mid-palate depth and a great finish. It needs to be hidden in the cellar for a solid 4-5 years if possible and is going to have 30 years of longevity. If drinking any time soon, give it an hour in a decanter. Maturity: 2027 - 2053."
- 95+ Points, Jeb Dunnuck (3/29/2023)
A 97-Point Bordeaux for forty bucks? This will sell out fast.
Vin Chicago Price: 39.99
