The energy and focus of this wine is excellent with blackberry, salt, chalk and stone aromas and flavors. Some tar, too. It’s medium-to full-bodied with fine, firm tannins and a long, flavorful finish.

A measured yet powerful grip holds interest from beginning to end of the palate. This is just dripping with salinity from crushed stones, graphite and slate - a physical presence that balances beautifully with the fleshy black cherry and damson fruits, and the chocolate shavings. An excellent quality Lassegue, hard hitting and muscular but with pace and persistency. 52% new oak barrels (from 15 different forests - always a key signature of this estate's ageing policy). 3.6pH, average vine age between 50 and 60 years old.

Deep purple-black colored, the 2020 Lassegue needs a little swirling to begin, to unlock bright, cheery scents of fresh blackberries, black raspberries and redcurrants, plus hints of black cherry preserves, charcoal, woodsmoke and underbrush with a waft of tapenade. The medium to full-bodied palate has a firm structure of ripe, rounded tannins and just enough freshness to support the generous black fruits, finishing long and earthy.

The 2020 Château Lassegue is another brilliant Saint-Emilion in the making. Offering a full-bodied, rich, textured, and at the same time pure and precise style on the palate, it has classic notes of ripe black cherries, charcoal, crushed stone, and truffly earth. Emerging from the home estate of Pierre Seillan, who’s the force behind the Verite wines in Sonoma, this beautiful 2020 is going to require just 2-4 years of bottle age yet keep for 15+.