Chateau Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion G_ 2021

An exceptional wine from this estate in 2021. So aromatic and beguiling on the nose - pure, lifted, completely captivating in the intensity of fruit and the liveliness of aroma with tiny touches of milk chocolate and perfumed blackcurrants. Supple, agile and sappy on the palate, but also so delicate and elegant in terms of the overall profile. Tannins are fine and gentle, persistent but with the limestone terroir coming through in the mineral, saline, graphite elements which linger at the end. There is definite concentration, you feel they got the maturity of the fruit and didn't push extraction. It's not super opulent, but expands on the palate and changes after a few minutes in the glass and as it warms, gaining in aromatic complexity. Really very juicy and pristine with cherry, strawberry and blackcurrant fruit as well as liquorice and dark chocolate. Excellent quality with freshness and appeal, balanced and harmonious with the slight lift and peak of clove, vanilla, cedar bramble suggesting a bigger frame that will age well. A success and extremely likeable. 58% new oak. First full vintage for Josephine Duffau-Lagarrosse since she took the helm of her family estate. Tasted twice. Julien Viaud consultant.

A complete wine for the vintage, with blackberry, stone, black-licorice and light walnut character. Medium-to full-bodied and linear, with very fine tannins running the length of the wine.

The 2021 Château Beausejour (Duffau-Lagarrosse) checks in as 63% Merlot and 27% Cabernet Franc that was harvested between September 30 and October 14 and was raised in 58% new French oak for 14 months, with the wine spending a few months in tank before bottling. It has a healthy ruby/purple hue as well as an incredible bouquet of black raspberries, ripe cherries, graphite, crushed stone, and hints of spicy herbs. This beauty is medium to full-bodied, has remarkable density on the mid-palate, and ultra-fine tannins. It's clearly in the top handful of wines in the vintage, offering density, terrific purity, and fabulous length. It's never going to be a blockbuster, but it’s an incredibly elegant, seamless wine that will have two decades or more of longevity. Bravo.

You're not going to get the same opulence of the past five years, but this is entirely successful in terms of harmony, elegance and finesse. A jolt of limestone salinity, lemongrass, oyster shell, violets, rose petals, and a subtle but moreish wave of cigar box and graphite smoke. Unrolls slowly but surely, with evident ripeness to the red fruits, and salt-cracker salinity on the finish. Harvest September 30 to October 10 (able to do so because they got only 10mm of rain at the end of September), 28hl/h yield, 58% new oak. Camille Devillenaut co-technical director with Josephine Duffau-Lagarrosse, coming over from Château Villemaurine. Tasted twice. First year with Axel Marchal as consultant, working alongside Michel Rolland (Julien Viaud), replacing the Nicolas Thienpont team.

The 2021 Beauséjour (Duffau Lagarrosse) is the first vintage made by Joséphine Duffau Lagarrosse since she took back control of the family estate (arriving on April 12, 2021), and both the vintage and her vision for the property aligned to favor a blend of 73% Merlot and 27% Cabernet Franc—the highest percentage of Cabernet since the early 2000s (when some Cabernet Sauvignon was included in the blend too). The wine has turned out very well in bottle, offering up aromas of raspberries and cherries mingled with rose petals and spices, framed by a touch of creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, pure and layered, it exhibits excellent depth at the core, built around lively acids and polished tannins, and concludes with a long, mineral and gently vanillin-inflected finish that's discreetly structured by its élevage. This wonderful clay-limestone terroir really shines through, as does the Cabernet Franc; and with some 68% new oak, foremost from Cadus and Taransaud, it's already less overtly creamy than this estate's wines were a decade ago, even if oak integration could be further refined.

The 2021 Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse is a blend of 73% Merlot and 27% Cabernet Franc, with only 58% new oak this vintage. Deep purple-black colored, it slowly emerges from the glass with profound notes of licorice, eucalyptus, violets, and sandalwood with a core of ripe juicy plums, cherry pie, and raspberry coulis. The medium-bodied palate is graceful and tightly knit with a refreshing backbone and fine-grained tannins, finishing long and mineral-tinged.

The 2021 Beauséjour Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse was picked from September 13 until October 1–2, the Cabernet Franc later, on October 14, starting around 7:00 am. Mildew reduced the Merlot to 28hL/ha, whereas the Cabernet was cropped around 35hL/ha. This was raised in 58% new oak, Joséphine Duffau being prudent with the level of new wood in order to maintain what she describes as a chalky taste. It has a fragrant bouquet of brambly red fruit, dark cherries and subtle undergrowth scents, all delivered up in that judicious use of new oak. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins and good density, equal to if not better than others on the limestone plateau, yet still quite mineral-driven, leading into a silky-smooth, cohesive finish. No, not a powerful Saint-Émilion, yet precise and detailed. This represents a great debut, and it should give 15–20 years of pleasure, possibly more.

The 2021 Beauséjour Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse is impressive. It shows more energy and decidedly linear build relative to the past. It's hard to say how much of that is the vintage and how much is attributable to a stylistic shift under new owner Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse. Either way, the 2021 is a notable success. Savory herbs, menthol, mocha and iron are laced throughout a core of red/purplish fruit. There is so much to look forward to.