CH ORMES DE PEZ ST ESTEPHE 2020

Saint-Estèphe is Cabernet Sauvignon country — except here. The 2020 Ormes de Pez flips the typical Left Bank script with a Merlot-dominant blend of 54% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petit Verdot, the result of a deliberate vineyard restructuring to match grapes to soil. Owned by the Cazes family of Lynch-Bages, the estate's 35-hectare vineyard sits on clay-gravel soils in the northern commune of Saint-Estèphe — clay content heavy enough that Merlot came through the 2020 drought far better than Cabernet did. Aged 16 months in French oak barriques at 45% new, it opens with blackcurrant, blueberry, and dark cherry, gains tobacco and graphite in the mid-palate, and finishes with gunsmoke and saline grip.