2021 La Croix de Beaucaillou
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Tasting notes
The 2021 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou is a more serious effort offering solid concentration in a vintage that yielded mostly mid-weight, elegant wines. Cassis, darker berries, spice, and graphite all define this nicely balanced, medium to full-bodied second wine. The blend is 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot, which is more Cabernet Sauvignon than usual for this cuvée. It's a focused, elegant wine to drink over the coming 10-15 years.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Lawther MW, jancisrobinson.com
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
The 2021 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou has a beautifully defined bouquet whereby the Cabernet Sauvignon rules the roost, imparting fine mineralité and an attractive marine influence, quite cool and classic. The palate is very saline on the entry, like walking down to the Gironde estuary on a winter's day—a wine evoking a sense of place. Very delineated on the impressively persistent finish, this is a superb 2021 that will give 20 years of pleasure. This is just a whisker away in quality from the Grand Vin.
The 2021 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou is a dark, somber wine. Cabernet Sauvignon drives the blend, and that very much comes through in the wine's flavor profile and structural feel. Blue and black fruits, graphite, leather, menthol and spice abound. This is a very serious Saint-Julien.
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.