2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour
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Tasting notes
Intense aromas of iodine, blackcurrants, cedar, sandalwood and mint follow through to a medium to full body with silky tannins that spread across the palate and expand in a balanced and harmonized way. Hints of chocolate and fruit at the end. Some tar. Drinkable but better in a few years. Try in 2027 and beyond.
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour is outrageously beautiful. A wine of statuesque build and class, the 2021 represents another major step forward for BV. Black cherry, plum, spice, new leather, menthol, mocha and gravel soar from the glass. This is an especially refined vintage for this flagship wine. Here, too, there is plenty of tannin, but it is not anywhere near as perceptible as it was in the past. Shorter macerations and gentler overall winemaking, including fewer lots vinified in barrel, have elevated the Georges meaningfully.
What a spectacular showing of this iconic wine in the terrific 2021 vintage. Deep ruby with a purple hue, it just exudes elegance and statesmanship. It has a noble quality to it that begins with its precise and lifted bouquet of dried rose petals, kirsch, Blackberry, and cassis fruit interlaced with sagebrush, sandalwood, and toasty cedarwood. Perfectly medium to full-bodied, showcasing a dazzling spectrum of silken red and black fruits redolent of strawberry, cherry, plum, and blackberry atop a substantial bed of taut, mineral-tinged tannins. A spine of racy acidity lifts the panoply of fruit, and the finish reveals a plethora of wild herbs, cast iron notes, pastille, and white pepper, nuanced by rich, toasty oak infused with toffee and vanilla bean. It is one of the most satisfying and immediately enjoyable expressions of the Georges de Latour Private Reserve in the last decade. Produced by Trevor Durling, the fourth winemaker to follow in the footsteps of the great André Tchelistcheff.
Lastly, the flagship 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Georges De Latour Private Reserve is in the same ballpark as the 2019 and is an incredibly elegant yet concentrated 2021 that does everything right. Purple-hued, with ample cassis, wild sage, graphite, and darker chocolate-like aromatics, it picks up a Graves-like gravelly earth character with air and is full-bodied, has ripe, polished tannins, beautiful overall balance, and a great finish. As with many of the top 2021s, it s a touch reserved and closed and needs 4-5 years of bottle age, but will drink well for 30 years.
About the producer
Beaulieu Vineyard remains one of the most historically important wineries in Napa Valley. It is it one of the longest continuous running wineries in the region, as one of the few that kept operating throughout Prohibition.