2010 Larcis Ducasse
Buying options
Tasting notes
The finest vintage here since the 2005, and a solid step up over the 2009, the 2010 Château Larcis Ducasse is just about pure magic and offers everything you could want from a Saint-Emilion. Still youthfully ruby/plum-hued, it opens up slowly with air with a smorgasbord-like array of ripe red and black fruits, truffly earth, green tobacco, flowers, and smoke. This carries to a full-bodied, concentrated wine offering building yet sweet tannins, a remarkable mix of richness and freshness, and a blockbuster finish. Wine doesn't get much better, and while this is absolutely sensational today, it has another 30 years of longevity. I wouldn't be surprised to see this eclipse the 2005 over the coming decade. Drink 2024-2054.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeannie Cho Lee MW
Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider
More reviews and scores
Clear sense of completion and balance, good depth and texture to the tannic architecture, with slate, cigar box, crayon, cassis, pomegranate, saffron, and oyster shell. Remains tight at this point, and the acidity is still on the austere side. Give it longer, and concentrate on the excellent 2009 for the next few years. Nicolas Thienpont director, Gratiot-Attmane owners.
The 2010 Larcis Ducasse is a wine that tasted stupendous from barrel, but I subsequently encountered two perplexing showings blind after bottling. Fortunately, this replicates that initial showing. It is beautifully defined on the nose with dark cherries, dark chocolate, raspberry and touches of vanilla. It is vigorous and seems to be opening its first few chapters. The palate is medium-bodied and fresh as a daisy, fine tannins, very cohesive with a lovely sapid finish that lingers in the mouth. Superb grip with a candied element that becomes more evident with aeration. Superb. (NM)
The 2010 Larcis-Ducasse has a very intense and focused bouquet, a mélange of red and black fruit, cassis, violets and light cough candy aromas, very much in keeping with Larcis’s style. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe tannins, ripe and generous and almost like a McClaren Vale Cabernet in style (not written pejoratively I might add.) The acidity is finely tuned and texturally it feels rounded and sensual, especially towards the finish, though I would have liked more tension and just a tad more complexity there. Tasted at the BI Wines & Spirits 10-Year On tasting.
About the producer
Over the last two decades, Nicolas Thienpont and David Suire have forged this estate’s reputation – crafting increasingly impressive wines from its 11 hectares of south-facing slopes on clay-limestone soils.