2019 Rauzan Gassies
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Tasting notes
The 2019 Château Rauzan-Gassies is a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated blend that includes 18% Merlot. It offers up a terrific bouquet of red and black currants as well as savory tobacco, spice box, and chocolaty oak nuances. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has a balanced, concentrated mouthfeel, lots of firm tannins, and a big finish. It's unquestionably an outstanding wine yet needs 5-6 years in the cellar and will impress over the following two decades.
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
The 2019 Rauzan-Gassies exhibits aromas of earthy cassis, burning embers and cigar wrapper, followed by a medium-bodied palate with a delicate core of fruit framed by powdery tannins and lively acids. It's a nicely balanced, uncomplicated claret, but it remains a comparative underachiever given this estate's history.
The 2019 Rauzan Gassies has opened nicely on the nose, offering brambly red berry fruit and veins of blue fruit, and thankfully lacking the greenness that I have noticed in other recent vintages. In fact, if I had this blind, I would not guess it to be Rauzan Gassies. The palate is medium-bodied and quite saline in the mouth, with dark plummy fruit and good acidity. It is missing some amplitude toward the finish and would benefit from more persistence, yet overall, this is a marked improvement compared to both the barrel sample and other vintages, and I raise my score accordingly.
About the producer
The Quié family purchased Pauillac Fifth Growth Ch. Croizet-Bages in 1942, adding Rauzan-Gassies four years later. Once part of the same estate as the neighbouring Rauzan-Ségla, this Margaux property was split off in time for the 1855 Classification, earning Second Growth status.