The 2020 Rauzan-Ségla is showing brilliantly in bottle. Wafting from the glass with aromas of cassis and minty blackberries mingled with violets and licorice, it's medium to full-bodied, suave and seamless, with a deep core of vibrant fruit, beautifully refined tannins and a harmonious, integrated profile that exudes elegance. A wine of immense character and refinement, it's the best vintage from this estate in recent times.
98 points, William Kelley, Wine Advocate (Apr 2023)
The 2020 Château Rauzan-Ségla is pure Margaux brilliance, and this beautifully elegant wine embodies the best of the vintage. Revealing a deep ruby/purple hue as well as a great bouquet of blackcurrants, black cherries, lead pencil, sandalwood, smoked tobacco, and hints of incense, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a layered, seamless mouthfeel, integrated acidity, and a great finish. It offers pleasure today (although it closes down with extended air) but deserves 5-7 years of bottle age and will evolve for 30 years or more. This is clearly in the same league as the 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. Tasted on multiple occasions with consistent results.
98 points, Jeb Dunnuck (Mar 2023)
Juicy and lively fragrance on the nose – so perfumed and alluring. Delicate and pure on the palate, crystalline yet with such intensity. A rush of creamy tangy strawberries, herbal-edged raspberries and plum fruit lined with salty minerality gives the nuance and detail. It’s lightly framed with well integrated tannins that are fine and firm, tense just giving some tightness on the mid-palate, a sense of compactness, but then it opens again towards the finish. Cool and ethereal, this exudes charm and confidence. Extremely well made and totally seductive. I love the juiciness and sense of joyfulness, but it’s also beguiling as it deepens and grows in layers of chalk, slate, bramble fruits, perfume and florality. Another excellent wine from Rauzan with delicacy, detall and drinkability. Stunning.
98 points, Georgina Hindle, Decanter (Jan 2023)
The 2020 Rauzan-Ségla is a huge, explosive wine. Black cherry, plum, chocolate, licorice, smoke and incense are some of the many notes that infuse the 2020 with tremendous richness. With élevage, the 2020 has grown into a huge, brooding wine endowed with notable presence. There's great purity and class here. The 2020 is a powerful, brooding Rauzan-Ségla for readers who can be patient. Very patient. Tasted two times.
97 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous (Feb 2023)
A very polished red with blackberry, black olive, walnut, and crushed stone aromas that follow through to a medium to full body with polished, velvety tannins that go on for minutes. Surprisingly open and so attractive. Wonderful length to this. Needs four to five years to open. Best after 2026.
97 points, James Suckling (Nov 2023)
A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot, and 1% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 Rauzan-Segla has a deep garnet-purple color. It charges out of the gate with energetic notes of fresh blackberries, cassis, and black cherries, leading to hints of clove oil, violets, and underbrush. The medium-bodied palate has a plush, fine-grained texture and seamless freshness supporting the classically styled flavors, finishing long and perfumed.
97 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent (Mar 2024)
This wine has a fine structure, with dense tannins from the Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. It is a full wine, the spicy character mingling with black currant flavors. The wine has an excellent future. Drink from 2027.
96 points, Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast (Apr 2023)
Edge of smoked and salted caramel, along with blackberry, cassis, bilberry, liquourice root, incense, giving depth and character. Elegant, satiny tannins, very much an architecture that makes you stop and appreciate the craftsmanship that has put it all together. Second time tasting this frshly-released vintage in recent weeks, and it's one to savour. 3.74, 60% new oak, harvest September 8 to 29. Nicolas Audbert director, Eric Boissenot consultant.
96 points, Jane Anson (Mar 2023)