Château Beauséjour Duffau Lagarrosse, Grand Cru Classé St Emilion, 2015
Our tasting of the Nicolas Thienpont wines with his son, Cyril at the beautifully situated Pavie Macquin was a real treat. Larcis Ducasse, Pavie Macquin and Beauséjour Duffau Lagarrosse all possess great terroir; sometimes we find the wines are a bit over the top and lack energy - this certainly wasn't the case in 2015.Beausejour Duffau Lagarrosse is a terroir that Robert Parker clearly loves. It is capable of producing grand scale, thick wines with enormous complexity and ageing potential. The 2015 is clearly very impressive, although it doesn't possess the same vitality and energy of Larcis and Pavie Macquin. It has a darker style, brooding, mineral notes, with liquorice, earth, incense and black fruits. This wine has real stature and makes a big statement; swathes of black cherry and mulberry coat the palate. This is big, impressive, commanding wine. 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc.
critic reviews
The 2015 Beauséjour Duffau Lagarrosse was tasted twice. The bottle tasted blind at Farr's did not show well, but this one was better. It has a ripe and forward bouquet cut from a similar cloth to the Pavie-Macquin (both made by Nicolas Thienpont), though this has more delineation and freshness. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, a crisp line of acidity, gentle grip and tension. Perhaps the bottle that I drank in 2019 had a little more complexity on the finish. It seems to have lost some character since then, but this remains a commendable wine from a previous era of the château.
Nicolas Thienpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt were in charge of the winemaking at Beauséjour back in 2015, producing exceptional bottles, and this is a standout success. Perhaps smokier on the opening than you would find today, generous and fleshy in its delivery of brambled autumnal fruit, with ripe black cherry and luscious damson but with the restraint and slate edging that bring you into the heart of the limestone soils. Love this wine, and it sings in 2015.
Medium to deep garnet colored, the 2015 Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse delivers very youthful scents of kirsch, juicy blackberries, and black raspberries, followed by wafts of cedar chest, dried herbs, and wood smoke. The full-bodied palate is still wearing a lot of oak, delivering firm, chewy tannins and plenty of freshness to the long, savory finish.