Solid red with blackberry, blueberry, chocolate and spice. Lots of hazelnut, too. It’s full-bodied with chewy, polished tannins and a long, flavorful finish. Best of the trilogy vintages?

Incredibly dark in color, the nose jumps with smoked currants, burning embers, singed cherries, spice and flowers. The wine is plush, dense, full-bodied and rich, with layers of polished, velvety dark red fruits that coat and soothe your palate, finishing with dark chocolate, sweet plums, licorice and espresso. Give this at least 8 or more years in the cellar and the wine is going to really start to show. 95-97

Drink Date
2026 - 2050

Reviewed by Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Sporting a deep purple-black color, the 2020 Malescot St. Exupery prances out of the glass with showy scents of ripe black and red currants, black cherries, raspberry leaves and ground cloves, plus wafts of lilacs and tilled soil. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers mouth-coating black and red fruit layers with a firm, grainy texture and well-balanced acidity, finishing on a lingering fragrant-earth note.

The 2020 Malescot St. Exupery was picked at 31hl/ha. It has a bouquet that I would describe as controlled opulence: lavish blueberry, Dorset plums, crushed violet and incense burst from the glass... but in orderly fashion. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe and succulent tannins that lend this Margaux a fleshy texture, yet there is clearly ample structure, as well as marvelous salinity and precision on the finish. This 2020 continues the purple patch for this property and comes highly recommended.

vinous.com

Lots of cassis, blackberries, toasted spices, and vanilla-tinged oak define the nose of the 2020 Château Malescot Saint Exupery, and it’s medium to full-bodied, round, and supple on the palate. With velvety tannins, terrific mid-palate depth, and the classic purity of fruit that’s the hallmark of the vintage, it builds nicely with time in the glass and is another incredibly impressive Margaux that will have two decades or more of prime drinking.

The 2020 Malescot Saint Exupéry offers up scents of scorched earth, licorice, smoke, gravel and menthol. Powerful, bold and savory, the 2020 possesses remarkable depth and tons of character. Malescot has been one of the under the radar gems in Bordeaux these last few years. The 2020 is another gorgeous wine from the château.

vinous.com

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

Enjoyable black fruit aromatics on the nose, they do a good job here of soft pedalling the extraction on the attack, although by the mid palate we are in bitter chocolate and liquorice territory. Again, concentration and intensity is an overriding signature of the vintage. 3% Petit Verdot completes the blend. A yield of 31hl/ha.

Drinking Window 2026 - 2040

(49% M, 44%, 4% CF, 3% PV; 31hl/ha; 13.5% ABV; 70% new)
Blackberry-sweet to smell; full, fresh, and finely, if firmly tannic; deep and sweet in ripe black fruit, full, round, long to taste, ample and satisfying, a gentle subtlety of taste, mouthcoating, sapid, and with lovely fruit length; a most seductive abundance of ripe Merlot flesh, well-contained and defined by its Cabernet tannin frame. This will make a delicious bottle in its fruit-rich, fulsome style. At 49% there is a particularly high proportion of Merlot this year (it is usually more like one third), but Jean-Luc simply said, “The Cabernets were very small and lacking juice, and the Merlots so very good, so, why not include them all?” Why not indeed, and the result speaks for itself. You’ll be able to drink this relatively early, but it will keep and age well. 2028–50+.

Full bottle 1,260 g. Cask sample. 49% Merlot, 44% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet France, 3% Petit Verdot. Vines aged 45 years. 'Non-yeasted, non-fined, non-filtered.'
Black core with deep crimson rim. Much sweeter on the nose than most of the Margaux 2020s I have tasted – perhaps that's the high percentage of Merlot? Damson and blackberry. Even a hint of blackcurrant throat pastilles. That sweetness is there on the palate too but balanced by fresh acidity. It's a little bit unmeshed at the moment in a sweet-sour way but should gain greater integration with time. Tannins are firm, on the thick side, chewy. A bit ungainly for now. (JH)