2020 Ducru Beaucaillou
Buying options
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.
A 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.
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.