2020 Ducru Beaucaillou
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Tasting Notes
Like all of Ducru’s wines in 2020, the colour here is impressively intense – a glisteningly deep purple. The toasted spice is beautifully absorbed by the sheer concentration of fruit on the nose, with a compact spectrum of fruit, from black cherry through to currants and sweeter purple fruit tones. The fruit remains so condensed at the moment, but a lovely smokiness wafts over the fruit, backed by earthier, graphite aromas. It is captivating. The palate is drop-dead awe-inspiring. It is fantastically ripe and concentrated, but the precision of the tannins creates a stunning structure and focus to the palate – starting plush, broad and juicy and finishing so tight. The condensed fruit and fine tannins produces layer upon layer of textures on the palate, bringing great tension. There is lots of freshness too and there is a wonderful energy to the finish. Wow! This is serotonin-releasing hedonistic Saint-Julien of the highest order.
Critic Scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jane Anson, Decanter
More reviews and scores
An amazing Ducru, one of the wines of the vintage. Hugely persistent, chiselled and precise, yet succulent in its berry and cassis fruit character. The slate and pencil lead finish slows things down and grabs hold of you, I love the push-and-pull of the tannins. Always a confident and well-finessed wine, really flexing its muscles in 2020. 100% new oak barrels. 3.83pH.
The 2020 Ducru-Beaucaillou is a blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, aging for approximately 18 months in 100% new barriques. It has a pH of 3.83, 13.5% alcohol and an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 90. Opaque purple-black colored, the nose slowly unfurls to reveal tantalizing scents of crushed blackcurrants, wild blueberries and boysenberries, leading to suggestions of chocolate mint, star anise, red roses and unsmoked cigars with a waft of cedar chest. The medium-bodied palate delivers impactful, muscular black fruits with a firm frame of ripe, fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and fragrant.
Richly colored, the wine delivers a complex nose of cigar box, tobacco leaf, wet forest floor, camphor, red and black currants, blackberry and creme de cassis. Supple, sensuous, elegant and concentrated, the wine focuses on its refined character, purity of fruit and silky textures. Long, vibrant and incredibly refined, the finish builds as it lingers. This gem should start to really unfurl after its 10th birthday and provide fabulous drinking for 25-35 years after that. Not as powerful as some recent vintages, instead this is a stunningly graceful Ducru Beaucaillou. Produced from blending 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, 13.5% ABV. Picking took place September 11 - September 30. Yields were low at close to 30 hectoliters per hectare. To celebrate 300 years of Ducru Beaucaillou, the estate created a special bottling for one-time-only bottle.
About the producer
Second Growth estate Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou in Saint-Julien is one of the Super Seconds, an elite group of properties producing wines that regularly compete with the finest in the Médoc.