Chateau Grand-Puy Ducasse 5eme Cru Classe, Pauillac 2019

The 2019 Grand Puy Ducasse is class personified. Just as in barrel, from bottle Grand-Puy Ducasse possesses terrific freshness and energy in place of the heavy, extracted style that was the norm just a few years ago. Readers will find a Pauillac endowed with tons of transparency and tons of sheer class. The 2019 is wonderfully sophisticated in every way. I loved it.

Blackcurrants and walnuts with sweet berry and cherry undertones. Full-bodied with chewy tannins and a long, flavorful finish. Linear and intense tannins run the length of the wine with intensity and persistence. Try after 2026.

A beautiful effort that does everything right, the 2019 Château Grand-Puy Ducasse offers a rich, medium to full-bodied, concentrated style that shows the inherent elegance, as well as richness, of the vintage. Darker currants, toasted spice, cedar pencil, and tobacco notes all define the bouquet, and it's quintessentially Pauillac with its aromatics as well as structure. It already offers pleasure, particularly with a decant (I followed this bottle for multiple days), but it will certainly benefit from 5-7 years in the cellar and is going to shine for at least two decades.

Powerful liquorice, cocoa bean, espresso and campfire smoke on the opening beats of the wine, silky tannins, well handled blackberry and cassis fruits. Bitter aniseed on the close of play, this has great momentum and lift, and is a successful Grand Puy Ducasse, a big step up from the 2nd wine. 40% new oak.

The 2019 Grand Puy Ducasse showed promise when I tasted the barrel sample in the UK. Now in bottle, it has developed nicely, though it demands coaxing to reveal well-defined blackberry and graphite scents. The palate is medium-bodied, classic Pauillac in style, with gentle grip on the finish. Is it reaching the estate’s full potential? I think that is yet to come. But this is the finest Grand Puy Ducasse in many years and certainly superior to the 2018.

The 2019 Grand-Puy Ducasse is composed of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon and 47% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it needs some coaxing to delivers note of stewed tea, cedar, and crushed rocks with a core of cassis and blackberry pie. The medium to full-bodied palate is chewy and taut, with muscular fruit and a firm, grippy finish. It's seems to be in a muted phase currently and needs another 3-5 years in bottle.