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The 2009 Ducru Beaucaillou will eclipse the brilliant wines produced in 2005, 2003 and 2000. It will be interesting to see how the 2009 fares against the 2010 after twenty years of aging, but my money is on the 2009. A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot that achieved 13.5% natural alcohol, this inky purple, unctuous wine possesses classic aromas of graphite, creme de cassis, blueberries, violets, licorice and Christmas fruitcake. Full-bodied and intense with Ducru’s inimitable elegance and purity, it should firm up in the bottle after 7-10 years of cellaring and last for 40-50 years. Magnificent!Bruno Borie has done a remarkable job at Ducru Beaucaillou.Robert Parker | 100 RPProbably one of my most consistent 100 pointers, I’ve been lucky enough to taste through close to a case of this beauty and it’s never failed to just utterly blow me away. Still purple-hued with maybe just a hint of lightening around the edges, the 2009 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou offers an incredible bouquet of black currants, white truffle, cassis, lead pencil shavings, tobacco, and a hint of flowers. A good portion of its baby fat has melted away, and it’s full-bodied and elegant on the palate, with silky tannins, incredible depth of fruit, and a gorgeous finish. This is pure elegance and finesse paired with richness and texture. A quintessential Bordeaux, drink bottles any time over the coming 40-50 years. It actually reminds me of the 1982, only better!Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDRich, powerful and intense, this is still inky in colour at 10 years, barely out of the starting gate. It’s a wonderful wine, full of pleasure, still fresh and young, with cinnamon and saffron spice, eucalyptus, menthol-edging, and drenched in dark, juicy fruits. Great stuff, with the clear ability to power on for decades. Drinking Window 2020 - 2044Decanter | 98 DECThe 2009 Ducru-Beaucaillou has a killer bouquet with wonderful definition: blackberry, wild hedgerow, minerals and touches of pressed flower. This has just lost some of its puppy fat in recent years. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannin, taut and quite linear, lightly spiced with a firm grip but plenty of elegance towards the finish. This is an outstanding Ducru-Beaucaillou that is only just beginning to show what it can do. That said, having tasted the 2016, I think that is even better. Tasted at the château.Vinous Media | 97 VMFeatures plenty of flash and sizzle, with gorgeous, inviting mocha, espresso and chocolate notes up front, backed by a dense core of plum sauce, cassis, blackberry puree and blueberry reduction accents. Long, showing terrific polish, with a lovely lingering loam note and a buried singed apple wood edge that keeps everything driving through the finish. Best from 2016 through 2035.Wine Spectator | 96 WSBig and powerful, structured, with bitter chocolate and blackberry flavors. The wine is dense, the fruit enormous. But it does manage to keep freshness.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThis is a rich, powerful, concentrated and well-structured wine, but in comparison to recent vintages (from 2014) this comes off slightly heavy on the mid-palate. However, I love the balance at the ripe and generous finish. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)James Suckling | 95 JS(Château Ducru-Beaucaillou) The good news is that the 2009 Ducru-Beaucaillou was raised in ninety percent new wood this year and shows no signs whatsoever of over-oaking. I would still love to see this very special terroir featured a bit more in the finished wine by returning to the old days, when a third new oak was deemed plenty sufficient for the grand vin, but the new wood is seamlessly woven into the tapestry of the wine this year. The bouquet is deep, pure and ripe, as it offers up an outstanding blend of dark berries, black currants, cigar smoke, gravelly soil tones, tobacco leaf and a discreet base of nutty oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully reserved, with a rock solid core of fruit, firm, ripe tannins and outstanding length and grip on the chewy and beautifully focused finish. This is a very traditionally made bottle of Ducru, with the vintage’s power beautifully harnessed. Superb wine. (Drink between 2030-2075)John Gilman | 92-94+ JG

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. (Drink between 2029-2045)Decanter | 98 DECReally perfumed and complex with blackberries, blackcurrants and flowers. Gorgeous cabernet sauvignon character. Full-bodied with really fine, polished tannins. Superb length and intensity. Very compact and seamless. Ethereal. Just goes on and on.James Suckling | 98-99 JSA blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, brought up in new oak, the 2020 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou offers a gorgeously pure nose of crème de cassis, graphite, crushed stone, toasty oak, and lead pencil shavings. Full-bodied, concentrated, and structured, it reminds me of a hypothetical mix of the 2010 and 2016, offering serious concentration paired with a gorgeous sense of precision and purity. It’s going to take a decade of cellaring to hit the early stages of maturity (it will have some up-front appeal if you’re interested) yet evolve for 50 years or more. Along with the Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, it might be the wine of the vintage from the Médoc.Jeb Dunnuck | 97-99 JD96–98. Barrel Sample. The tannins are dense while the texture shows a dusty suspended character that gives the wine great charm. Yet, having said that, the concentration will give this wine long term aging both from the acidity and the structure.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEThe 2020 Ducru Beaucaillou was picked from 11-30 September, matured entirely in new oak for an expected 18 months. It has a very succinct bouquet, not one that leaps from the glass and demands attention, but it unfolds slowly, at its own pace, revealing enticing scents of blackberry, cedar, iris petals and crushed stone. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit. There is a saline spine that runs through this Saint-Julien from start to finish, a quite enormous structure that exerts grip towards the finish. It is not a Ducru-Beaucaillou that goes out to deliver finesse or understatement, but one that you will have to cellar for a few years, pull out and have the superlatives ready. This is an immense and cerebral Ducru-Beaucaillou from Bruno Borie and his team.Vinous Media | 96-98 VMThe 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.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95-97 RP

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 VMBeautiful 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 DECFirm, 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 JSThis 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 WEI 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 JDA 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 RPThe 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

Moving to the Grand Vin, it’s a slightly more Merlot-influenced blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot, raised in new barrels. It brings the same level of concentration and structure as the La Croix but has another level of class, elegance, and purity, with sensational aromatics of crème de cassis, graphite, crushed stone, sandalwood, and graphite. The purity here is truly remarkable, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, perfectly integrated oak, silky tannins, and a great finish. This beauty hit 14% natural alcohol with a pH of 3.8 and an IPT of 95. Given its balance as well as its texture, it’s going to offer pleasure with just short-term cellaring yet also evolve for decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 97-99 JDBeautiful 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.Decanter | 97 DECSome much creme de cassis and blackcurrant aromas and flavors here. Full-bodied with powerful tannins, yet fine and layered. Chewy. You can really feel the thick grape skins here. Excellent length. Tannins spread across the palate. Minerally and crushed stone.James Suckling | 97-98 JSMade from 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot, the 2022 Ducru-Beaucaillou is deep garnet-purple in color. It comes barreling out with powerful notes of blackcurrant cordial, boysenberry preserves, and licorice with hints of mocha, graphite, and cedar. The medium to full-bodied palate is rich and super firm with ripe, grainy tannins and just enough freshness, finishing with epic length and purity.The Wine Independent | 97-99 TWIThe 2022 Ducru-Beaucaillou contains less Cabernet than last year and is closer to the normal blend of the Grand Vin, picked between 7 September and 4 October - the longest harvest in their history. The IPT is 95. Matured in 100% new oak, the bouquet bides its time in the glass, almost reluctantly unfurling with scents of blackberry, briary, cigar humidor and sous-bois. At this nascent stage, it is more backward than its peers. The palate is undoubtedly one of the most dense and muscular that I have encountered over many years tasting at the estate, full-bodied with vice-like tannins. Continuing the theme of the estate’s other cuvées, there is a lovely Pauillac-like presence throughout, with graphite/pencil lead infusing the black fruit. The finish exerts a considerable grip and feels saline, almost briny on the aftertaste. This Leviathan Ducru-Beaucaillou threatens to overwhelm the senses, uncompromising in many ways, and it will patently take many years for the tannins to soften. I feel that it is only once in bottle that one will be able to gauge its trajectory.Vinous Media | 95-97 VMOne 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.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94-96 RP