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This wine is the finest Grand-Puy-Lacoste produced after 1982 and before 1995. The 1986 still possesses an impressive deep ruby/purple color, as well as a classic nose of cedar, blackcurrants, smoke, and vanillin. Full-bodied, powerful, authoritatively rich, and loaded with fruit, this wine’s solid lashing of tannin is not likely to melt away for 3-4 more years. It can be drunk, although it is backward and unyielding. Certainly, it is one of the better northern Medocs of the vintage. Anticipated maturity: Now-2012. Last tasted 6/97.Robert Parker | 91 RP

This is a beautiful red now with plums, roses and blackberries on the nose and palate. Full body with wonderfully integrated tannins that caress your palate. So beautiful. Drink now.James Suckling | 93 JSThis was a strong performance (better than my original notes suggested) by the 2000 Talbot. Close to full maturity, it exhibits a dense ruby/plum/purple color in addition to a subtle herbaceousness intermixed with smoked meats, black currants, licorice, cedar, and foresty notes. Rich and full-bodied with light tannins, and a slightly richer, more savory, broader, deeper style than I remember, it should drink well for 10-15 years.Robert Parker | 93 RPSoft, blueberry and brambled autumn fruit – a definite hedgerow feel. This has expectedly soft tannins at this stage, moving into tertiary territory. Certainly an excellent wine for early drinking, with cigar smoke notes, even the dried tobacco leaf. It’s currently at its peak Médoc character, although perhaps it softens too much towards the end. This is elegant and effortless, full of classic St-Julien balance. Aged in 50% new oak. A touch of Cabernet Franc makes up the blend. Drinking Window 2018 - 2027Decanter | 92 DECThis is a very new-wood dominated wine, that will appeal to lovers of California Cabernet. Blackcurrant jelly fruits are there as well, very modern, very polished.Wine Enthusiast | 91 WEThis has a solid core of plum cake, blackberry paste and warmed fig fruit flavors that are fully melded together, while sweet cedar and tobacco notes line the finish. Right where it should be now.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2020. 28,333 cases made.Wine Spectator | 90 WS

Its bigger sister, the 2005 Château Palmer (53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot), is one of the great efforts of this superlative vintage. Floral notes mixed with blackberry, cassis, plum, licorice and spring flowers soar from the glass of this dense ruby/purple wine. It is medium to full-bodied, surprisingly opulent (it has a big percentage of Merlot), long, multi-dimensional and textured. This wonderfully pure, stunning wine once again performs as a first-growth. It should drink well for the next 20-25 years.Robert Parker | 98 RPThe 2005 Palmer has been absolutely magical both times I have tasted it recently. Still wonderfully deep to the core, the 2005 is dense, packed to the core and luxuriously opulent. Even with all of that intensity, the 2005 remains vibrant. Lush red/purplish berry fruit, rose petal, lavender and sweet spice build into the towering finish. The 2005 is an epic wine that will have no problem reaching its fiftieth birthday. It is a rich, dramatic Margaux that checks all the boxes, and then some. I rated a second bottle even higher.Antonio Galloni | 98 AGThe 2005 was the first vintage where Thomas Duroux was in charge from beginning to end, having worked alongside his predecessor Bertrand Bouteiller on most of the 2004. Another great vintage in this all-star line-up, and the one that perhaps had the most exuberant sunny expression in the early years, although now at 15 years of age the tertiary aromatics are just starting to arrive, along with hints of earthiness and a savoury cassis fruit character as the Cabernet Sauvignon continues to dominate. There is a gentle truffled edging to the colour also, but the tannic frame is very much in play, and still cradling the fruit. A great wine that walks the tightrope between young and old Palmer, and between the welcome of a generous vintage and the natural elegance of a great Palmer. Harvest September 22 to October 7. Drinking Window 2020 - 2045.Decanter | 97 DECNo written review provided | 96 W&SAromas of black tar, chocolate and berries lead to a wine that is so effortlessly delicious that it’s easy to forget the power the Merlot gives it. The center is round, but dark, filled with sweetness; the outer layers are full of red jelly and toast. There are tannins, but they, too, are sweet.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEWhat a nose of milk chocolate, with raspberries and hints of plums and flowers. A wonderful nose. Full-bodied, with super velvety tannins and a chocolate, nut, and dark fruit character on the palate. The fine tannins and great balance make you want to drink this, but you should wait and let it all out. Pull the cork in 2016.James Suckling | 94 JSFeatures a bright flash of bay leaf and savory out front, with streak of tobacco and cedar amid the relatively open core of black cherry and black currant fruit. The long finish has a terrific iron note ringing through. Among the more approachable of this group, but no less serious.—Blind ’01/’03/’05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Drink now through 2030. 10,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WS

The 2021 Ducru-Beaucaillou captures all the potential it showed from barrel. A delicate, understated wine, the 2021 impresses above all else with its finesse. All the elements are impeccably balanced throughout. Time in the glass brings out the wine’s inner sweetness and gorgeous perfume. The balance with oak, at times a challenge here, is also flawless. With lower alcohol and therefore also less extraction from oak than recent vintages, the 2021 is shaping up to be a modern-day classic. The blend is 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Merlot, the highest amount of Cabernet Sauvignon ever here. What a wine.Vinous Media | 98 VMI was also able to retaste a barrel sample of the 2021 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, and it showed in line with my tastings last year. It’s a shockingly concentrated, medium to full-bodied, balanced Ducru Beaucaillou that I think will surpass most of the so-called petits millésimes of the past two decades, and that just goes to show the level of attention to detail and talent at this address.Jeb Dunnuck | 95-97 JDFirm, 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.James Suckling | 96-97 JSA 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.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94-96 RPBeautiful 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.Decanter | 96 DECThis is a wine with enormous potential with rich tannins and dark black fruits. At the same time, it has lightness that gives it a lift of fine black currant fruits. It will age, of course.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThe 2021 Ducru-Beaucaillou, 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Merlot, was tasted as a tank sample just before bottling. Deep garnet-purple in color, it opens with notes of crushed blackcurrants, fresh raspberries, and Morello cherries with touches of dried herbs, mossy tree bark, pencil lead, and damp soil. The light-bodied palate delivers mouth-filling, crunchy, black and red berry flavors with chewy tannins and a lively backbone, finishing with an herbal lift.The Wine Independent | 92-94+ TWI