La Croix Ducru Beaucaillou, St Julien, 2023
A nice bouquet of forest fruits, liquorice, and cassis greets the nose of the 2024 Croix de Beaucaillou. Generous and juicy on the mid-palate, it offers plenty of substance with dark fruit inflected with gravelly minerals and a touch of kirsch. Powerful tannins provide a frame, but there's ample mid-palate fruit to support them. There’s good tension and length here. Polished and juicy, with quite an exotic and ripe character.
critic reviews
When 2023 works, it works like this... effortless, opulent, squid ink, graphite, totally delicious. Love this, the cassis and bilberry character against slate, cocoa bean and cigar box. 60% new oak.
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2023 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou comes bounding out with notes of Morello cherries, wild blueberries, and fresh blackberries followed by hints of iris, pencil lead, and fragrant earth. The medium-bodied palate is light on its feet and refreshing, with soft, approachable tannins and plenty of bright blue and black fruit, finishing with a skip in its step. The blend is 58% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2% Petit Verdot.
The 2023 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou has a very perfumed and floral bouquet: plush red berry fruit, vanilla, cedar and blood orange, well-defined with deftly integrated new oak (60%). The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannins that lend this La Croix a bit more backbone than recent vintages. It’s very fresh; white pepper and thyme complement the bright red fruit, leading to an overtly peppery finish, with a touch of graphite on the aftertaste.