Château Ducru Beaucaillou, 2eme Cru Classé, St Julien, 2022
Following the outstanding Croix de Beaucaillou, we had high hopes for the grand vin, and we were not to be disappointed. This is an epic Ducru with huge presence. Commencing with a gloriously complex bouquet of dark perfumed fruit, violets, graphite and sandalwood – this is relatively open and expressive for such a grand wine, but one feels there is much more to come. The palate leads with an abundance of high-quality purple fruit, very precise and detailed with notes of iris, graphite and boysenberry. There's fabulous tension to the fruit, which is pure, focussed and crisp. Perfectly ripe and vital, with long, noble Cabernet flavours of perfumed cassis; the core is velvety, seamless and layered with so much detail, with a real perception of freshness. Fittingly for a wine of this stature, the tannins are wonderfully nuanced, packed with minerals and bright fruit, imparting structure, length and finesse. A superb Ducru.
critic reviews
This is a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot, and the élevage was 18 months in 100% new oak. A surprisingly perfumed example of Ducru-Beaucaillou, forgoing the dark intensity of Cabernet Sauvignon I intended to find, instead serving up perfumed currants, mint, verbena and sandalwood. This is followed by a richly polished palate, fine and tense, sinewy rather than muscular, with a powdery vein of tannins that writhes beneath the fruit, slowly pushing through in the middle and finish. The finish presents a huge structure, with a real density here, but all sinew and tendon, with linear tannic structure. Long and sooty, and seething with potential. This will be great, while eschewing the breadth and robust substance that some wines show. This is a change from the Ducru-Beaucaillou of even just six or seven years ago, when I would have expected a style which was darker, more brooding and a touch more muscular. I like it. The alcohol on the label is 14%.
Delivers as it did En Primeur, again giving the impression of a carefully constructed, confident and poised wine, that has St Julien typicity, but turned up with Ducru opulence. Muscular, concentrated, packed with graphite, flint, crayon and gunsmoke, alongside juicy and rich fruit, giving contrasting textures that add interest and complexity. A ton of ageing ahead of it. 3.8ph, 95IPT. 100% new oak. 30hl/h yield.
The 2022 Ducru-Beaucaillou was a "Leviathan" when I tasted it from barrel, to use my own vernacular. In bottle since the second week of July 2024, it has calmed down a little aromatically, with blackberry, bilberry, crushed stone and freshly rolled tobacco scents that emerge with time. Fine tannins frame the palate. This is far more linear than it showed out of barrel. It's stricter, with an almost Pauillac-like tannic structure (Ducru-Beaucaillou can sometimes bear this trait). Full of energy and quite persistent, with a grippy finish, this is a long-term prospect that is uncompromising in nature—I mean that in a good way.
One of the Medoc's most powerful wines this year is the 2022 Ducru-Beaucaillou, a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot that opens in the glass with aromas of dark cherries and berries mingled with pencils shavings, vanilla pod and spices. Full-bodied, broad-shouldered and muscular, with a core of ripe but lively fruit underpinned by a chassis of powdery, liberally extracted tannin that asserts itself on the finish, it's a punchy, modern Saint-Julien reminiscent of a hypothetical blend of the 2018 and 2020.
product details
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