With the Piedlong red 2020 - On the palate, you have the same very ripe, almost stewed red fruits, raspberry and strawberry; all of this is guided by a frame and structure of quite rare elegance and silkiness. The tannins have hints of pepper and menthol; and on the finish, there is a pleasing savoury freshness with a noble vegetal quality, with the Grenache’s sucrosity surfacing to drive extra length and depth. Fragility, elegance and richness moving along the same path.

Like La Crau, Piedlong plateau loves dry years, and with such vintages it serves up tremendously complex fruit; this was true of 2020, and right from the outset, you are faced with this natural
complexity, depth and balance. On the nose, aromas of black olive catch the attention first; then, when you aerate, very ripe red berry fruits emerge, followed by mild spices.

It cannot be said often enough that a vintage is largely shaped in its predecessor's final months. In this case we are talking about autumn 2019, which was particularly wet. Rainfall was very high, enabling the earth to regenerate deep down. Considering there had been a rainfall deficit during almost all of 2020, you really gauge the importance of the previous autumn. On top of which, winter and spring were rather mild, which brings us to the foremost factor in the vintage: the early harvest. After a summer which was also above average, in terms of heat, picking leapt forward to 25 August. Which is how, helped by perfectly healthy grapes and fairly low yields, the harvest (across all appellations) had ended by 19 September - certainly an all-time record for Vignobles Brunier.

"Very spicy and savory with grilled rosemary and dried flower nuances. Very powerful but extremely focused with a great mineral freshness and salinity, it’s really hard to believe this easily has 15% alcohol! Very fine tannins and a delicate vegetal quality that makes them feel even more lively. Long extremely animating finish with so much Mediterranean herb character. 90% grenache and 10% mourvedre. Drink or hold.
95 points." Stuart Piggott, jamessuckling.com (April 2023)