Rhône 2020 En Primeur: full vintage report and top-scoring wines

This has that tell-tale touch of soy to the plum and blackcurrant fruit so reminiscent of this cuvée. Fluid and juicy on the palate, this has great intensity and salinity without feeling heavy or overripe. Plenty of sweet, ripe tannin and balanced acidity. Only medium-bodied, there's a touch of pepperiness on the finish, great freshness, harmony and balance. Sometimes a wine seems a bit too easy, a bit too effortless, and it can lull you into a sense that it lacks seriousness; this wine tries to do that, but I'm not inclined to underestimate it.

Beautifully fragrant and floral, showing rose and violet characters. Super-fine, silky tannins and lovely acidity, this is an eminently classic Côte Brune, with flowers, cinnamon, black olive, rosemary and perfectly ripe, bright blackberries. It has a tapered finish - not the same concentration and power as 2019 - but with great finesse and elegance of expression. Beautifully balanced and very hard to fault.

Fresh and a bit closed, but starting to transform now with some subtle sous bois notes. Such an elegant, fine and juicy wine, with real depth and pinpoint acidity. Like a fur coat, this is ultimate Châteauneuf elegance, showing extraordinary length, balance and tension. All destemmed, matured in old oak foudres.

Full-bodied, generous in fruit and glycerol. The tannins and acidity seem to meld together into a single vertebral column. The alcohol is present, lending sweetness rather than heat. Remarkably elegant for a wine of these dimensions, with great, rising, upright flavours and structure. This is a very special wine with a long finish. Parcels of Grenache planted on lieux-dits Chapouin, La Janasse and La Crau, the oldest planted in 1912.

What you find in the whites, you find in the reds,' says Jean-Louis Chave, alluding to the natural freshness and balance in the 2020 Hermitage lieux-dits. This shows a good sense of finesse, with discreet, elegant tannins and intensity without great power. It is a concentrated but restrained vintage of elegance and great precision.

A wine that fizzes and sparks with crackling berry fruits and dried herbs. Full-bodied but not massive in the mouth, this has soaring power and energy. Perfectly balanced, with searing, mouth-coating, super-fine tannin. A wine like a thunder crack that takes you by surprise, it shocks the palate. Long finish. This is an exceptional vintage for Vincent Paris. 100-year-old vines. No destemming. Five-day cold maceration, then fermented with wild yeasts. Twice daily remontage, no punching down, then aged for 16 months in two to eight-year-old barriques. Grown on the granite slopes of lieu-dit La Geynale, one of the finest of the appellation.

Fresh, flinty aroma with blackcurrant underneath - an enlivening nose. Great harmony, incisive freshness and remarkable drive, the fruit is fresh, pure and concentrated. Totally seamless on the palate, with incredible textural finesse and length. A profound Hermitage in the making, perhaps not one of great weight and authority, but one of incredible tension, freshness and precision. If 2019 was Thor, 2020 is Loki. Like all of the 2020 reds, its fruitiness and approachable structure will make many want to drink this young. You can, but this has serious ageing potential.

Particularly compelling, this might be worthy of a higher score once bottled. Perfect acidity, great aromatic expression and amazing precision. Raspberry, olive and bay leaf, with a tremulous finish, this is a great expression of Lancement. Very special indeed, this is an elegant, beautiful wine.

A vibrant, focused and intense style of Cornas, a return to a classic style after the richness of 2018 and the power of 2019. Their Renaissance will be made this year, so both wines will need to be bottled before a more precise evaluation of each blend can be made, but the outlook is good. Whole-bunch fermented in unlined concrete tanks, matured in small old foudres.

Beautifully floral expression, bright acidity and great upright thrust. So juicy and powerful, but such finesse and lightness of touch, also. Big, driving, burly tannins and just a touch of raised alcohol peeping through, but this is forgivable given its excellence. Tannins still a touch green on the finish, but such a big, powerful and rich wine. 100% whole bunch from Côte Rozier.

Peppery rose aromas flow onto a seriously weighty, deep, rounded, powerful and dense palate. Muscular yet fresh, this is very similar to a classic Les Grandes Places in style. Lots of clay in this lieu-dit, which is only owned by Gaillard and Ogier. 80% whole bunch.

Wonderfully fresh and expressive, with a touch of black pepper hiding among the menthol and deep, dark berry fruits. Medium- to full-bodied, this has stacks of rich, sweet berry fruit and driving acidity, then ends neat and precise. Very well-integrated oak brings a spicy complexity, but the site is more prominent than the method. Arguably not as deep as 2015, but this is nonetheless a hugely enjoyable wine. A blend of lieux-dits Le Mollard (near Côte-Blonde), La Viallière, La Brosse and La Landonne. Tasted non-blind.

A combination of separate lieux-dits which show a classic, fresh and focused vintage, with each component reflecting its origins with great clarity. It's an aromatic style, with slight tannins and fairly low but balanced acidity. All whole-bunch fermented, matured mostly in old demi-muids.

Beautifully detailed, floral, violet-scented nose; totally classic, tender and charming. Medium- to full-bodied, with cooling, fresh blackberry fruit. Super-fine, plentiful but elegant tannins and the little bitter kick is classic Viallière. This is exceptional and will provide a lot of pleasure. Four weeks in tank, 18 months in oak (limited new oak), with natural yeasts and as many stems as possible.

From an old-vine parcel, this is peppery, fluid and fresh, showing bay leaf, rose and fine tannins. Not as powerful as his Champon or Bertholon, but elegant and complex. 100% whole bunch.

Introverted on the nose, but smooth and bold on the palate. A little more generosity and weight than some Hermitage this year, also slightly higher alcohol. Harmonious, with good acidity and integrated oak, it is detailed and defined on the palate. A large-framed but calm and collected wine with a good sense of purity and typicity, this is a serious Hermitage. Vines of nearly 50 years of age, grown organically on lieux-dits Beaumes and Péléat, matured in demi-muids with malolactic fermentation in barrel.

Fresh and dense, displaying great substance and depth. Robust oak work here and it's very tannic; a powerful, driving wine of great size and grandeur. Long and complete, it will swallow its oak in time I suspect. At the start of its 40 months in new oak barriques. Old vines from Les Bessards, Les Greffieux, L'Ermite and Les Murets.

Pure, lively black cherry, liquorice and violet; not huge in the mouth, but extraordinary concentration for the vintage. It's dense, with sweet tannins and great surging acidity. Clearly the alcohol is high, but you don't taste it as it's remarkably well-balanced, elegant, fine and incredibly intense: opulent without oak or artifice. Selection from Les Trois Sources, their oldest Grenache, and only produced when the Grenache is good enough.

Closed for now, but very Mourvèdre in style: dense, dark and brooding. Great intensity but not as tannic as some vintages, showing lovely acidity, freshness and purity. This is a classic, compact and fresh style of Hommage, with great energy, plus endless length and depth. Around 60% of the blend comes from old vine Mourvèdre from their Courrieux vineyard. Grapes are destemmed, fermented in tronconic wooden vats using natural yeasts after a brief cold maceration, with regular punching down.

A fine fragrance; tea leaves, plum and floral flourishes. A fine palate too, showing exceptional tannic finesse, expressive fruit, and lovely acidity. Well balanced, elegant and drinkable. Not overly concentrated or full-bodied, this shows great energy and vibrancy. Very old-vine pure Grenache, fermented in concrete, aged in foudres.

An experiment 'to see how people made wine in antiquity,' says Mounier Saouma. From lieu-dit Bois de la Ville, made in unwaxed clay amphora, whole clusters spending 12 months inside, then pressed to stainless steel for four months before bottling. Very cloudy, yet to be settled, it possesses liquorice and cherry, extraordinary tension, intensity, incredible freshness and texture. An early stage to make a judgement on the wine, but this looks very interesting indeed.

Interesting and unusual aromatic display, with liquorice, dark chocolate, woody herbs, raspberry and a touch of spice. Generous and flowing on the palate, the acid is piercing, precise and there's plenty of textural interest. Promises to be complex and fascinating in time, and the wait shouldn't be too long. Largely sandy soils, a small lieu-dit to the west of the village. All fermented and aged in tronconic vats.

A tasting of the Coeur, Couchant and Levant parcels reveals a very classic vintage; light and feathery but with clarity and precision. Nonetheless, Emmanuel Reynaud believes it will be a vintage with a long life. It's particularly pale in colour this year, relatively light in body and tannic structure, too. There is a good sense of sucrosité at its heart, balanced with fresh acidity. A vintage of delicacy and charm rather than power.