Vintage 2020

2020 is often referred to as the ‘Covid’ or ‘lockdown’ vintage – this was the year in which growers, freed from the obligations of travelling the world to taste with customers, had all the time they could want to devote to their vines. In Bordeaux, 2020 was marked by heat and drought, though not of the intensity of 2022, for example. While variable during en primeur, many reds were plush and full-bodied with a strong tannin backbone. Such wines should age remarkably well. It was a successful year for Bordeaux dry whites, too, in a similar vein to 2019.

Undoubtedly there were dense and powerful Pinot from Burgundy in 2020 – contrasting with the more lively and seductively refined 2019s – but overall Burgundy reds from this vintage stands out for their paradoxical (considering the protracted heat) freshness. For whites, some critics point to 2020 as being among the best in recent memory. It was a vintage to remember in the Rhône Valley, too – another beguilingly warm one for the region, with luscious fruit profiles and heady aromatics recorded in both red and whites from north to south. In Piedmont, 2020 produced forward and approachable wines, including finely textured, perfumed Barolos with more delicacy than one might expect from a relatively warm vintage. The vintage was marked by disastrous wildfires in California, with ripe, occasionally rustic Cabernets emerging from Napa.

Wildfires across large swathes of Australia also benighted 2020, however there were consolations, in Western Australia in particular, where Margaret River producers celebrated one of their best years to date for Chardonnay. New Zealand, meanwhile, had a lockdown vintage to remember for the right reasons, in which almost uniformly good climatic conditions helped to produce outstanding wines across all major growing regions.