Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 2022

82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot Majestueux, le bouquet de Ducru-Beaucaillou n’ouvre que des perspectives réjouissantes. Il appelle même la gourmandise dans un contexte complexe et imposant avec des nuances d’épices douces, de réglisse et de fèves de cacao complétées par des effluves de fruits rouges, de baies noires mûres, de cèdre et de graphite. Tout est très cohérent, rien n’est dominant, sauf les réjouissances ! Le toucher de bouche ne fait que confirmer les promesses olfactives. Le vin est dense, profond et soutenu par des tannins légèrement suaves conférant puissance et énergie. Une très fine austérité vient consolider le côté énergétique du vin et crée ainsi le lien entre tempérament, gourmandise et puissance. C’est un très grand Ducru-Beaucaillou qui rejoint les extraordinaires 2016, 2019 et 2020… entre autres ! Il est élégant, charmant, puissant, persistant et, bien évidemment, fin et harmonieux ! Quelle interminable finale et quelle énergie ; la performance est élevée et constante, du bouquet jusqu’en fin de bouche. Maintenant, il s’agit de patienter. Le vin a de nombreuses décennies devant lui, mais il sera intéressant de le goûter régulièrement… il faudra juste en avoir assez 🙂 2029-2057. Décembre 2024.

A great, powerful and proportional Ducru with everything in the right place. The aromas and flavors are very precise and beautiful with blackberry, raspberry and citrus undertones. Full-bodied and structured, it has polished electric tannins that are finely layered, well formed and very long. Remains cool on the palate. 82% cabernet sauvignon and 18% merlot. Drink after 2029 but will age beautifully. January 2025.

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 focused 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: 2030 - 2050. Georgina Hindle. April 2023.

This is a velvet wine on the surface. But its density and concentration are balanced by the superb acidity and perfumed black fruits from the dominant Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine has a seriously long-term future. Roger Voss. February 2023.

One of the Médoc'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. William Kelley. April 2023.