Made from Merlot grapes picked between the 9th and the 15th of September and Cabernet Franc grapes picked on the 16th of September, the 2020 La Chenade expresses a vibrant and elegant bouquet with aromas of dark berries, violet, rose, dark cherries and graphite. Medium to full-bodied, it’s a juicy and elegant wine with a fleshy core of fruit and a fresh finish. As usual, this estate has produced excellent red wine from sandy-gravel soils.

The 2020 La Chenade is clean and precise on the nose, offering a mixture of red and black fruit, plus hints of licorice and light minty scents loitering in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, veering more toward black fruit. An underlying salinity then encourages the saliva to flow on the finish. This is a beautiful Lalande de Pomerol – elegance personified. - vinous.com

This is very creamy and polished with attractive blackcurrant and bitter citrus character. Medium-bodied, polished and lovely.

Tasted by Jane Anson(at Primeur week tastings in Bordeaux, 01 May 2021)

Sit back and enjoy the life and sap through this wine, with earthy wild blackberry notes that I really enjoy. No need to wait too long, enjoyably sculpted if a little concentrated in its tannic sign-off. 3.72pH. A yield of 38hl/ha. La Chenade contains a fairly high amount of young vines, which meant it was more affected than Les Cruzelles by the dry summer, but it has been exceptionally well handled.

Drinking Window 2023 - 2032

The 2020 La Chenade is fleshy and succulent right out of the gate. Sweet red cherry, red plum, spice, mint and sweet pipe tobacco lend quite a bit of aromatic presence to this super-expressive Lalande de Pomerol from the Durantou family. As always, La Chenade is 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, with the Franc especially marked in this vintage in the wine's aromatics and structural feel. A few years in the bottle will be essential.

vinous.com

Flowers, cocoa and red fruits create the backdrop for this medium-bodied, fresh, lush, forward, already accessible charmer. The wine finishes with sweet, soft, earthy red fruits. You can enjoy this just about on release and for at least a decade after that. 89-91

Drink Date
2024 - 2038

Reviewed by Lisa Perrotti-Brown

The 2020 La Chenade is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, coming from vines planted to a sandy-gravel soil at the Durantous's Lalande de Pomerol estate. The Merlot was picked between the 9th and the 15th of September and the Cabernet Franc on the 16th of September. It has an alcohol of 14% and is aging in French oak barrels, 30% new. Deep garnet-purple colored, it comes skipping out of the glass with exuberant scents of Morello cherries, boysenberries and crushed red and black plums, plus suggestions of underbrush, damp soil and menthol. The medium-bodied palate is elegant and nicely balanced, with soft acidity and tannins framing the earth-laced red and black fruits, finishing long and minerally. 10,000 bottles are expected to be made.

(80% M, 20% CF; 40hl/ha; 14% ABV; 30% new)
Densely but freshly ripe nose, with a touch of gravel there; rich, fresh, and fleshy wine, with a very nicely contained tannin; ripe, plush, satisfying, gently and flatteringly rich, with a beautiful defining freshness and with lovely length. Beautifully made, a great success, and likely to be exceptionally good value. 2024–34+.

Tasted blind. Deep crimson. Sweet aroma of blackberries. Perfumed as well as sweetly oaked. Fresh on the mid palate but a little bit disjointed on the finish. Big but smooth tannins, then acidity kicks in on the finish to be a little intrusive. (JH)

80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc. Cask sample. Fruit-driven, lively and juicy with a light tannic frame. Simple pleasure but falls away a bit at the end. (JL)