The 2020 Talbot is every bit as impressive as it was from barrel. Strong Cabernet Sauvignon inflections open first in the bouquet, leading into a rich palate laced with expressive dark cherry and plum fruit. A Saint-Julien of power and stature, Talbot is fabulous in 2020. I love the breadth and overall intensity here, but there is just as much focus to keep things in balance. The 2020 is superb, certainly the best in recent memory.

Spicy, structured and dense, this is a complex, smoky and powerful wine. With polished fruit and structure, it comes from an increasingly impressive estate. Drink the wine from 2027.

Exuberant, with generous plum sauce, licorice root, blackberry compote and apple wood notes vying for attention, as graphite and cast iron accents drive along underneath. Reveals a little flash of exotic toast that snazzes up the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2030 through 2040. 18,000 cases made, 1,400 cases imported.

Another gorgeous 2020, the 2020 Château Talbot has an almost Pauillac-like sense of graphite and lead pencil as well as ripe blackcurrant fruit, medium to full body, and abundant notes of smoked tobacco, leather, and dried herbs. It shows the more focused, almost austere, yet still ripe style of the vintage and has terrific mid-palate depth, ripe, polished tannins, and a great finish. There's an almost old school Bordeaux-like vibe in this beauty, but it's not rustic in any way, the balance is spot on, and it has loads of character. I'd be thrilled with bottles in the cellar. It's going to evolve nicely for two decades or more.

The 2020 Talbot exhibits aromas of cassis and plums mingled with hints of clove, violets and toasty new oak. Medium to full-bodied, with a rich core of fruit, powdery tannins and lively acids, it's quite strongly marked by its élevage out of the gates, and it's an open question for me as to whether there's enough depth here to integrate the barrel program and reassert its Saint-Julien identity. On each of the three occasions I tasted it, it left me wanting more.