2019 Beauséjour (Duffau-Lagarrosse), St-Émilion (OWC)

“This is 86% Merlot, picked between September 24th and October 4th, and 14% Cabernet Franc, picked October 4th and 7th, with a yield of 45 hl/ha. It shows a glossy and concentrated hue in the glass. Aromatically this seems to marry the best features seen in some of its peers, showing lovely intensity of fruit, with concentration but also a very fresh and pure style. I get dark red cherry on the nose, pure and elegant, slightly degraded, and laced with oaky tobacco, spice and leather. And while the palate starts off understated, with an elegantly framed presence, it immediately drops a weight of dark and concentrated fruits, with blackcurrant, black bean and black cherry, wrapped up in a sooty substance. Very poised, elegant, and yet charged with stacks of peppery energy, this has plenty to offer. Excellent potential here, savoury and structured, with great concentration.” (06/2020)

“Gorgeously aromatic and concentrated nose, rich with wild flowers and bramble fruits. Lovely cool blue fruits on the palate, blueberries, plums and black cherries with lashings of graphite, slate and liquorice giving a real spicy menthol mineral tone to the palate. Such complexity with poise and polish. Youthful for sure, but this will be excellent. The texture is so attractive and likeable. This has energy and vibrancy despite still being knitted down, it's just giving a hint of what's to come. Buy and hold on to. (GH)” (01/2022)

“Muscular, slow to open, firm tannins that are still closing in around the fruit, at first highlighting the austere edge of limestone. Take your time with this, because there is a beautiful wave of espresso, cocoa bean, campfire smoke, cassis and damson that hits through the mid palate, and becomes irresistable after a few hours in the glass. Hovering on the edge of its drinking window, but there are decades ahead. Nicolas Thienpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt arrived as consultant winemakers in 2009, so this was the second vintage under their direction, and it's holding up extrememely well, showcasing the more concentrated style that they introduced. Bernard Oizeau cellar master, yields of 21hl/h.” (06/2023)

“From one of my favorite châteaux on the Right Bank, the 2019 Château Beauséjour (Duffau-Lagarrosse) is 86% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Franc brought up in a mix of new and used barrels. It's a tighter, more closed 2019, yet it offers beautiful purity and focus in its cassis and black raspberry fruits as well as notes of tobacco leaf, graphite, chocolate, and chalky minerality. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and again, with this remarkable purity and precision, it has enough tannins to warrant 4-6 years in the cellar and will be incredibly long-lived. It's a beautiful Saint-Emilion. It’s worth pointing out that the 2019 is the vintage bottled by Nicolas Thienpont and starting in 2021, the estate is in the hands of Josephine Duffau-Lagarrosse. (JD) 96+” (04/2022)

“The 2019 Beauséjour (Duffau Lagarrosse) has turned out beautifully in bottle. Wafting from the glass with aromas of wild blueberries, raspberries, violets, rose petals and forest floor, framed by a deft application of creamy new oak, it's medium to full-bodied, seamless and layered, with a lively core of fruit, bright acids and fine, powdery tannins, concluding with a long, precise, saline finish. It displays all the structural refinement and vibrancy of flavor that this sector of Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau is capable of. (WK)” (04/2022)

“Blackberries and black chocolate with licorice and berry highlights. Flowers and crushed stones, too. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm, creamy tannins and a flavorful finish. Plenty going on here. Very subtle and refined for this estate. Needs two or three years to come together. Try after 2024.” (02/2022)