A very fine wine, rich with its tannins and its structure. The wine is powerful without losing sight of its fine fruits, black currant flavors and acidity. Balanced and with great potential. Drink from 2027.

Following the 2018 (and tasted next to the 2020), the 2019 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou comes across as more refined and elegant, with a straight, focused, still full-bodied profile that has pure cassis and blue-tinged fruits as well as textbook tobacco leaf, violets, and graphite. It's a regal, refined, aristocratic Ducru Beaucaillou that has ultra-fine tannins and a layered, seamless mouthfeel, and while it's seriously concentrated, it stays graceful and light on its feet. It's closed down slightly since release, so this beauty needs a solid 7-8 years in the cellar.

Powerful and muscular, the 2019 Ducru-Beaucaillou offers up aromas of cassis, raspberries and cherries mingled with notions of violets and iris, framed by a generous application of creamy new oak. Full-bodied, velvety and concentrated, it's rich but lively, with a deep core of fruit and an ample endowment of ripe, powdery tannins. Fuller maturity and a more rigorous selection over the last two decades have brought what proprietor Bruno Borie characterizes as additional "punch" to this wine, in the form of unprecedented levels of anthocyanins and tannins, but all that substance and structure will require some patience before we'll see if Ducru is still Saint-Julien's most elegant wine.

The 2019 Ducru Beaucaillou has a pastille-like purity on the nose - black cherries, blueberry, quite floral and Margaux-like in style. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, showy and opulent, yet undeniably there is real backbone behind this Saint-Julien. Velvety smooth on the finish, this is the right way to produce decadent Left Bank Bordeaux. Fabulous. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.