Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 2021

98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Merlot Mit 98% Cabernet Sauvignon hat der Ducru-Beaucaillou 2021 den höchsten Cabernet-Anteil in der Geschichte des Weinguts. Dies ist auch der höchste Prozentsatz von 2021 unter den Crus Classés im Médoc. Das Bouquet spielt zwischen Kräutern, Früchten und würzigen Noten. Es positioniert sich subtil und präzise, wie der Auftakt und die Tanninstruktur. Der Wein kann sich seiner Kraft, der durch die Säure verliehenen Spannung und des daraus resultierenden Reifepotenzials rühmen. Ein charaktervoller Wein, der Zeit braucht, um sich zu entfalten, aber schon jetzt seine Zugehörigkeit zum Kreis der großen Weine des Jahrgangs beansprucht. Viel Tonus und Perspektiven! 2027-2056. Dezember 2023.

Almost entirely Cabernet, this wine is packed with aromatic black-currant fruits. It is impressively rich with solid tannins and black plum, walnut and berry flavors. Drink this powerful wine from 2028 at the earliest. Roger Voss. January 2024.

Firm, structured and pure with a cool and solid core of dark currants, blackberries, tar, pencil lead and bitter chocolate. Hints of tobacco, too. Firm but silky tannins. Very pure, with a long, mineral finish. Intense and very focused. 98% cabernet sauvignon and 2% merlot. 96-97/100. May 2022.

A wine that will delight Médoc purists, the 2021 Ducru-Beaucaillou is a blend of fully 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Merlot and checks in at a mere 12.5% alcohol. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cigar wrapper, violets, loamy soil and spices, it's full-bodied, layered and velvety, with superb depth at the core, lively acids and powdery tannins. Complete and penetrating, it's a true classic, reminiscent of a modern-day version of Ducru's brilliant 1996—though today's precision winemaking means that the 2021 is unlikely to go through so long a hibernation as that vintage. William Kelley. April 2022.

Beautiful and beguiling nose, perfumed blackcurrants and dark fruits; damsons, plums, raspberries and rose petals. Lovely crunchy fruit, real bite and presence in the mouth. Excellent precision, tannins are succulent and ripe they fill the mouth with a juicy, intense granular texture. There is such depth to this - perfume, tobacco, earth, violets and concentrated fruits that have a verticality to them with an unprecedented 98% of Cabernet Sauvignon providing the support and the backbone. There is a crystalline purity to the fruit giving tension to the overall frame, it’s focussed and driven all with excellent definition. This is not a wallflower of a wine - it’s charming and confident, strutting its stuff right now and giving you absolut St-Julien terroir and vintage markers in the glass with slate, graphite and liquorice salinity on show. Skilled winemaking on show. Drinking window: 2027-2050. Georgina Hindle. April 2022.