Château Ducru-Beaucaillou Croix De Beaucaillou Saint-julien 2019

Barrel Sample. From vines within the Ducru-Beaucaillou vineyard this is a major wine in its own right. It is generous in rich in blackberry flavors, serious tannins and a complex balance between acidity and ripe fruitiness. It will obviously age well. 94-96

The second wine of this great château is the 2019 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou, which is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot that was raised in 60% new barrels. It fits into the lineup beautifully and sits nicely between the Le Petit Ducru and the Grand Vin. Deep purple-hued, with full-bodied aromas and flavors of pure cassis, crushed stone, graphite, lead pencil, and smoked tobacco, it has building yet fine tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. It shows the more regal, classy, elegant, yet still concentrated style of this vintage perfectly. Give bottles a healthy decant if drinking any time soon, and it will have upwards of two decades of prime drinking. Best After 2022.

The 2019 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou is a powerful, explosive wine. Black cherry, chocolate, leather and licorice flow effortlessly across the palate, lifted by pretty floral notes that appear with air. Fleshy, dark and beautifully resonant, La Croix has a ton to offer.

Rich aromas of cassis, licorice, cigar wrapper, loamy soil and creamy new oak introduce Bruno Borie's 2019 La Croix de Beaucaillou, a full-bodied, deep and concentrated wine that's rich and lively, with a fleshy core of fruit and plenty of fine, chalky tannin. Like for example Clos du Marquis and Les Forts de Latour, La Croix de Beaucaillou isn't a second wine per se, but rather a cuvée produced from dedicated parcels.