Striking yet elegant, this holds its own being tasted after the more plush and ripe Trotanoy while this is more focussed and streamlined. Just as confident, concentrated and intense but in a different way completely. This is more reserved, refined and less overt, with an incredible purity and precision to the layers of red berry fruit and salinity from the limestone. Such nuance and detail, this is seductive with a powdery texture to the tannins. Really very well worked. Hard to pick a favourite as the length and overall sculpting here are exceptional. A gorgeous wine with star power that really leaves a lingering impression. Drinking Window: 2027 - 2048
Tasted by: Georgina Hindle (at Bordeaux, 03 Jan 2023)
Part of Bordeaux 2020 in bottle: overview plus top-scoring wines

Full-bodied, concentrated, rich and velvety, the wine promptly provides layer after layer of flawlessly ripe, black and dark red pit fruits, crushed rocks, licorice, espresso, smoke and flowers. Long, deep, rich, concentrated and focused, the wine finishes with a majestic combination of minerals, black plums, black cherries, dark cocoa, velvet-laced tannins and spice. The stony finish sticks with you for close to 60 seconds. Give this at least a decade before pulling a cork and enjoy it over the next 3 decades with little effort. 98-100

The 2020 Bélair-Monange is tremendous. What a wine. It is easily the best effort since the Mouiex family bought the property. Rich, ample and dramatic, Bélair-Monange saturates the palate with waves of inky dark red fruit. Sweet floral, espresso and spice notes appear later, adding shades of nuance. Clean mineral notes extend the finish effortlessly. A wine of exotic beauty and allure, Bélair-Monange is a real stunner in 2020.

It’s full-bodied, showing loads of violets, blackberries and blueberries with salt and white-pepper character. Minerally. It’s very fine-grained with a fascinating finish. Intense and long. 98% merlot and 2% cabernet franc.

A quintessential Saint-Emilion, the 2020 Château Belair-Monange reveals a dense purple/plum color as well as classic Saint-Emilion minerality that covers lots of ripe black fruits, graphite, tobacco, and violet aromas and flavors. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated, you could almost eat it with a fork and yet it still stays light on its feet, has building, polished tannins, and a great finish. It's a brilliant wine in the making.

The 2020 Bélair-Monange has a brilliant bouquet that confirms my adulation from barrel with a cornucopia of aromas: black cherries, dates, crushed rock and pressed violets all unfold in dazzling fashion. The palate is beautifully proportioned with finely chiseled tannins, fresh and perhaps the most saline of J-P Moueix's 2020s. It builds supremely well on the mouth towards a structured yet pixelated finish. This fabulous Saint-Émilion may deserve even more adulation further down the line.

(98% M, 2% CF)
Dense and minerally to smell; concentrated, fairly full, very fresh in acidity, very fine in its firm tannin; deep, sweet, fresh; transparent, complex, and aromatic, a beautiful, complete limestone plateau GCC St-Emilion; pure, transparent, racy, and refined, with great, sweet, scented length. So fresh, pure, and transparent, without a trace of “thickness,” the concentration notwithstanding. Top-notch St-Emilion. Will need, ideally, a couple of decades. 2038–60+.

Drink Date
2027 - 2052

Reviewed by - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

The 2020 Belair Monange displays an opaque purple-black color, unfurling slowly to reveal a nose of blueberry preserves, stewed plums and Morello cherries, giving way to a fragrant undercurrent of Chinese five spice, incense and dried rose petals, plus hints of fallen leaves, Sichuan pepper and oolong tea. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers a fantastically plush texture with mouth-coating black and blue fruits and loads of exotic spice sparks, gently lifted by soft acidity, finishing long and fragrant.

98% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc. Cask sample.
Wisp of fruit and soil on the nose with a red-berry and chalky nuance. Beautifully textured, the plentiful tannins smooth and filigree fine. Poised, fresh and juicy as well, the finish long and palate-cleansing. Precisely executed, the terroir showing through. (JL)