Chateau Cantemerle Haut Medoc 2020 (375ml)

Château Cantemerle is a dynamo Left Bank estate in the Haut-Medoc appellation of Bordeaux. They were originally credited as a fifth growth estate in the 1855 classification, a designation that has been met with heavy and harsh criticism. Most view it with an asterisk since its an estate that has for decades exhibited incredible quality relative to anyone in a classification remotely close.

The estate has spared no expense to get to where it is today. They even famously brought over Mexican vineyard workers from California to assist in grafting and replanting vineyards due to their expertise in Cabernet Sauvignon. Today they have more than 220 acres planted under vine with more than half that production dedicated to Cabernet.

The values that have come out of Cantemerle in the last decade or so are absolutely incredible. It’s one of those wineries that seems to make extraordinary quality-to-price ratio wines, but the 2019 and now the 2020 have taken this great estate to new heights.

At Bordeaux’s annual En Primeur and beyond, this is one of the first places investors, enthusiasts and value hunters look for the best wines in Bordeaux. But how often do you see a Haut Medoc producer in this price range with 96-point scores attached? Not very often. That’s why Jeb Dunnuck calls them “an incredibly consistent estate that always delivers a quality wine”.