Château Kirwan 2020

Château Kirwan is a charming Third Growth estate located in the Margaux region.  Visitors that are fortunate enough to roam the grounds are often dazzled by stunning rose gardens and exquisite views of vineyards in Margaux and Cantenac.  Château Kirwan is all about accessible, modern, and elegant hospitality -- with a tasting room that looks like a quaint living room.  The message they want you to absorb here is, “Come, stay, rest awhile and taste our wines.”  Lucky visitors have the opportunity to taste vintages that date as far back as 1968 -- a rare opportunity in Bordeaux normally given to industry insiders and the elite.  This notion of elegance without pretense permeates throughout the estate, right down to the wines.  Buyers who are frustrated with the extravagant Bordeaux prices often find more recent vintages of Château Kirwan to overdeliver, yet still remain accessible and easy to purchase.  

The history of Château Kirwan dates back to 1710 when it was purchased by Englishman and experienced negociant Sir John Collingwood.  He was responsible for aggressively marketing this wine to England and ensured the wine was served at the Royal Court in London.  Collingwood willed the estate to his daughter who married Mark Kirwan.  The estate was named Château Kirwan after his surname.  Mark Kirwan increased the vineyard holdings and built the Château on the property – which still resides there in all its glory today.  In the 19th Century on his whirlwind trip to Bordeaux, Thomas Jefferson visited the estate and declared it was, “one of the great Second Growths in Bordeaux,” and considered it second in quality behind Château Margaux, Château Latour, Château Haut Brion, and Château Lafite Rothschild.  The négociants disagreed with this statement, and during the 1855 Classification Château Kirwan was ranked as a Third Growth or “Troisème Cru.”

The 40-hectare vineyard is currently run by the negociant Schyler and Schroder, and they have made a series of improvements to the estate.  The vines here are 35 years old on average.  The viticultural team at Château Kirwan recently added newer plantings of Carmenere to the standard mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc that are planted in the vineyard’s gravely terroir.  The 2017 vintage was the first vintage to feature Carmenere in the blend.  Like a few other Châteaux, Château Kirwan practices Co-inoculation, a process where malolactic fermentation takes place alongside alcoholic fermentation. This yields soft, silky and supple wines.  In the vat room, concrete tulip shaped fermentation vessels have been added to allow for parcel-by-parcel vinification. Château Kirwan started a bit of a trend with these impressive looking tanks, and other châteaux are beginning to follow suit.

The wines are soft and best enjoyed young, with a stunning lacework of tasting notes that is a signature to the wines of the Margaux region.  One can expect aromas of rose pepper, vanilla, and succulently ripe black cherries and currants. They have received mounting critical praise over the past few vintages, with fairly consistent scores in the 90 points range. These delightful, friendly wines are a fabulous example of an accessible Bordeaux.  Savvy buyers should take note -- Château Kirwan offers high quality Bordeaux wines without the pretense. 

"Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2020 Kirwan prances out of the glass with pretty scents of redcurrant jelly, black raspberries and Morello cherries, followed by hints of lavender, black tea and dried Provence herbs, with a touch of tree bark. The medium-bodied palate has fantastic tension and fine-grained tannins framing the tightly wound red fruit and savory layers, finishing long and refreshing." - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Advocate, (5/20/2021) Ratings: 91-93, Drink: 2025-2040

"The deep purple 2020 Château Kirwan offers a rocking bouquet of jammy blackberries, blueberries, violets, cedary oak, and sappy flowers. Playing in the medium to full-bodied, rich, concentrated end of the spectrum, on the palate it shows the more focused and elegant style of the vintage, with wonderful tannins and impressive purity of fruit. This is another strong showing by Château Kirwan that will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and have more than two decades of longevity." Jeb Dunnuck, Bordeaux 2020: En Primeur Part 1 (05/23/21) Rating: 92-94 

"Classic and powerful with plenty of architectural features giving angles and walls as the wine stretches out. This has confidence and juice, but lacks exuberance. The tannins are pretty high, there is some chewiness, a little austere, it will benefit from softening over ageing. 7% Petit Verdot completes the blend. A yield of 33hl/ha." Jane Anson, Decanter, Bordeaux Primeur Week 2020 (04/30/2021) Rating: 92

"The 2020 Kirwan, cropped at 33hl/ha and tank-fed via gravity, undergoes an 18- to 22-month élevage. It offers ripe black currant and raspberry coulis scents on the nose, violets and citrus peel emerging with time. There is a seductiveness to these aromatics. The palate is medium-bodied with a sweet, ripe entry that disguises the backbone, a very silky texture and traces of tobacco and graphite furnishing the opulent finish. One of the more luxuriant Margaux 2020s." Neal Martin, Vinous, (May, 2021) Rating: 91-93 Drink: 2025-2045