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

Powerful, as Rouget often is, with a skilful push and pull between power and finesse. Big-shouldered and intense, with plenty of chocolate and liquorice, excellent quality. Conversion to organic farming begun in 2020. Harvest September 15 to 30. 30% new oak.

Drinking Window 2027 - 2044

The 2020 Rouget is laced with lavish, inky fruit, cedar, tobacco, menthol, licorice, cedar and tobacco. Rich, sumptuous and alluring, Rouget is all about immediacy. Plush and silky, with soft contours and exceptional balance, Rouget delivers the goods, and then some. The forward, lush style is hugely appealing. Vinous.com

A rich, voluptuous Pomerol that does a lot right, the 2020 Château Rouget offers ample black cherry and currant fruit as well as notes of tobacco and chocolate. Rich, mouth-filling, and medium to full-bodied, it offers supple tannins, solid mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It’s worth pointing out that 30% of this wine was fermented with stems.

The 2020 Rouget was tasted from two half-bottles. Deep in color, it has an intense bouquet of black currant, tobacco and truffle shavings and an increasingly pronounced undergrowth scent. Compared to recent vintages that I have found a bit trop, this is much more focused and controlled. The palate is medium-bodied with quite firm tannins and well-judged acidity, touches of dark chocolate infusing the black fruit. This is well balanced and fresh and though there is some new oak to be assimilated toward the finish, this is very promising Rouget that deserves 4–6 years in bottle. - vinous.com

(85% M, 15% CF; 32hl/ha; 14.5% ABV; 30% new)
Sweetly ripe to smell; rich, fairly powerful, fresh in acidity, firm but fine in tannin, a very nice Pomerol balance; deep and sweetly ripe, a touch alcohol-warm, but with absolutely no coarseness, moderate complexity, effortless, harmonious, and with good fruit length. Very nice, but just lacking a point in aromatic complexity for more than a very good mid-rank, rather than a top-rank, Pomerol. Accessible early, like so many. 2026–40+.

Drink Date
NA

Reviewed by Lisa Perrotti-Brown

The 2020 Rouget has a deep purple-black color and pronounced notes of spiced blackberries, black cherry preserves and prunes, plus hints of cedar chest, Indian spices and tilled soil. The full-bodied palate is concentrated with slightly drying tannins and a lot of oak influence at this stage, finishing a little coarse. It could well come through this as just an "ugly-duck" stage, but I've scored it conservatively.