The 2020 Château Duhart-Milon is widely regarded as one of the estate's best vintages in recent memory, showcasing the precision and poise that define modern Pauillac. With 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Merlot, this wine exemplifies balance, freshness, and restrained power. It offers deep aromas of blackcurrant, plum, cigar box, graphite, and violets, unfolding into a medium to full-bodied palate with polished tannins, vibrant acidity, and a long, savory, mineral-driven finish.

Decanter | D 97
Published: Jan 3, 2023
Drink: 2027-2056

Suave, elegant and calmly confident. A masterclass in high-definition winemaking where all the elements are presented harmoniously with structure, freshness, complexity and a wide expansive finish. Tannins are well integrated giving support to the shining black Cabernet fruit that has strength, power and concentration but delivered underneath the savoury salinity, liquorice spice and minerality. There’s something very special about this. I love the sense of discretion, a wine that knows it has star quality but it’s not shouting about it. Pure and poised - incredibly inviting! A great buy.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 13.00%
Body: Full
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 72% Cabernet Sauvignon 28% Merlot

The Wine Advocate | RP 94
Published: Apr 6, 2023
Drink: 2025-2050

The most underrated wine in the Lafite stable these days has put in another strong performance with the 2020 Duhart-Milon, as this somewhat cooler, later-ripening site is well adapted to warmer vintages. Unfurling to reveal aromas of cassis, plums, cigar wrapper, loamy soil and violets, it's medium to full-bodied, broad and layered, with polished tannins, terrific depth at the core and a long, sapid finish.

Duhart-Milon's vineyards are later-maturing than Lafite's, and the soils are less inherently balanced: The clay-rich parts of the vineyard are richer in clay than at Lafite, and the gravel-rich parts of the vineyard are richer in gravel, whereas Lafite's predominantly gravel soils sometimes contain more than 10% clay. That explains why Duhart-Milon historically often produced leaner wines than Lafite, with less mid-palate amplitude, but a warming climate and more attention to viticultural detail (sowing cover crops, for example, in clay-rich parts of the vineyard) are mitigating these disadvantages, and recent vintages have seen this estate attain new qualitative heights.

As at all the Domaines Barons de Rothschild properties, winemaking and élevage are very classical, with regular rackings, and the majority of the barriques are derived from the in-house cooperage (emphasizing lightly toasted Allier and Nevers oak seasoned for 24 months), and as at Lafite, Cabernet is very much in the ascendant here.

James Suckling | JS 94
Published: May 7, 2023

A firm and racy Duhart with currants, chocolate and walnuts. Medium-bodied, with fine tannins and a fresh finish. Lovely subtle fruit. A bright finish. Succulent and refined. Savory. Very, very fine. 72% cabernet sauvignon and 28% merlot. Drink or hold.

Vivino | Vivino 4.3

Dark with good concentration, and the nose has a tightly defined fruit character, reticent rather than open, with a light sprinkle of chalk over some floral, black fruits. The palate has a very polished style, with a shell of fruit sitting around a core of very firm tannins which, although a strong component of the blend, do not over-ride the other elements.

Lafite.com

The vintage
Duhart-Milon 2020 is probably one of the best vintages of the last thirty years. However, the outcome was far from certain, and our teams had to overcome challenging conditions. The warm, rainy spring resulted in a battle against mildew, from which we eventually emerged victorious.
In the north-east of the appellation’s drier gravelly areas, there was some miraculous rain in mid-August, enabling the grapes to reach perfect maturity. The whole vineyard, even the youngest vines, remained healthy and active for the entire growth cycle. In the end, there was just the right amount of water stress for an ideal harvest.

Location
Pauillac is located on the left bank of the Gironde estuary, approximately 40km north of Bordeaux. With the tempering influence of the estuary and a great diversity of soils originating from both the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, Pauillac boasts exceptional climate and geological conditions for the production of outstanding wines.

Terroir
Château Duhart-Milon’s vineyard consists of a single block of vines adjacent to Château Lafite Rothschild, on the hillside to the west of the Carruades plateau. The property has 76 hectares of vines. The soil consists of fine gravel mixed with aeolian sand on a tertiary limestone.

Winemaking
Château Duhart-Milon is made according to traditional Bordeaux methods. The grapes are carefully sorted and placed in concrete or stainless-steel vats depending on their provenance for alcoholic fermentation. Gentle pumping over is carried out during fermentation to optimize extraction. Total maceration time is about 20 days before racking. Following this rigorous selection, the wine is blended and transferred to oak barrels (50% new).
Once the wines have undergone malolactic fermentation, they are transferred to French oak barrels made by the Tonnellerie des Domaines in Pauillac. Each barrel is tasted individually in December in order to determine which ones will be selected for the grand vin.

Grapes
72 % Cabernet sauvignon
28 % Merlot

Tasting
Beautiful, intense colour with glints of black and violet.
The still reserved nose reveals great aromatic potential which will gradually develop with bottle ageing. Ripe, fresh fruit aromas dominate, with notes of blackcurrant and menthol.
On the palate, the wine presents terrific freshness accompanied by plenty of volume. Well-defined, sound tannins maintain their elegance as they gradually fill the mouth. We are in Pauillac. The finish, with marked notes of graphite, is very characteristic of the terroir. Remarkably long, lingering on the plate almost endlessly.