2020 La Croix de Beaucaillou
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Tasting notes
The 2020 La Croix has an intense purple colour with light, graphite, mineral aromas bringing uplifting freshness to the nose. This is complemented by great-quality, toasted spice, sweeter vanilla and some lovely earthy tones. The palate is incredibly juicy with fabulous fruit concentration bringing lovely weight and volume to the palate. The tannins are fine, integrated and almost accessible now. There is plenty of ripe plum and blackcurrant fruit, with sweeter milk chocolate tones, but it all ends very fresh. This is an out-and-out crowd pleaser and offers great quality for the value on release.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jane Anson, Decanter
More reviews and scores
So much purity and definition, this is a beautiful wine with clarity of flavour. Touches of grilled almond and rosemary, mocha, smoke and coffee bean, there is so much freshness, with juice rushing in between the muscles and a mint leaf finish. 3.78pH, 60% new oak. Yields were 25-30hl/ha. In a year where second wines in the M�doc have sometimes suffered from over-concentration, La Croix de Beaucaillou is a standout success.
The second wine of the estate is the 2020 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou, composed of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot brought up in 60% new French oak. It's a much more concentrated, structured wine offering classic cassis and blackberry fruits intermixed with notes of scorched earth, tobacco, graphite, and chocolate. Playing in the medium to full-bodied end of the spectrum, it has a great mid-palate as well as the vintage's rich, deep, powerful style. It's going to have some up-front appeal given its balance as well as the quality of the tannins, but this is a serious wine for reserving 2-4 years in the cellar, and it should easily have 15-20 years of prime drinking.
The 2020 La Croix de Beaucaillou is composed of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. It has 13.75% alcohol and a pH of 3.78 with an IPT of 91. It is set to age for 12 months in French oak barrels, 60% new. Deep garnet-purple in color, it leaps from the glass with vibrant scents of crushed redcurrants, black raspberries and fresh black berries, plus hints of bay leaves, lavender and damp soil. The medium-bodied palate is full of energetic red and black berry layers with a grainy texture and just enough freshness, finishing with an herbal lift.
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.