Cassis puree, with gourmet edges of smoked caramel, blacberry and spiced plum. This is tight at the moment, needs a good few hours in a carafe to really show itself, and will improve further over next few years. 40% new...

Currants and dark fruits with hints of licorice. Full and silky with ripe tannins and berry. Cigar tobacco and berry. Sweet tobacco. This is a wine that shows serious depth of fruit and refined tannins. Better in 2016.

The greatest wine I’ve ever tasted from this address is the 2009 Léoville Poyferré, which is a step up over both the 2000 and the 2010. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot and the balance...

Delivers fabulous aromas of crushed red fruits, with leather, tar, tobacco and mint. Full-bodied, offering supersoft and silky tannins, as well as a beautiful polish. Open and luscious, with amazing richness of fruit and...

A spicy and fat, rich wine, atypical of Bordeaux. There is grip and depth of flavour here, with blackcurrant coulis character and some lovely menthol edging. A balanced wine.

Spicy, rich and full of ripe fruit, this wine has great potential. It is structured and dense while bringing out a stylish elegance. Blackberry fruit dominates the tannins to create a wine that has both concentration and...

(WE 94–96 points) A rich, spicy and smoky wine, this has generous tannins to balance the blackberry fruit flavors. The structure is already impressive, showing ripeness as well as density, which is promising for plenty...

(91-93 points)Barrel sample. Rich and smooth, with tannins that are ripe, some spice and also intense acidity. The blackcurrant character is dominant. ROGER VOSS

One of those wines that seriously improved from barrel to bottling, the wine is lushly textured, with waves of sweet, dark fruits. There is length, purity complexity and the structure to age along with endnotes of...

(92–94 points) Barrel sample. With so much spicy fruit, intensely ripe blackberry flavors and solid tannins, all the elements of excellence are here, and powered by a firm structure. This wine has weight and a fine...

More proof that St-Julien was making quality wines this year. This one majors on rich fruit extraction, layered over with a heavy dose of tannins that retract their claws just at the right moment. Expect big shoulders and...

The most effortlessly brilliant vintage in St Julien, and Saint Pierre is right up there with the best of examples you can find. Smoky and sculpted, still chewy tannins, firm but confident, liqourice and campfire smoke...

A brilliant Léoville, continuing to impress as it has every time I have tasted it. The width and depth of the ripe tannins is matched pace for pace by an elegance to the cassis, bilberry, blackcurrant fruit. As it opens...

(WE93-95 points) This is a solid effort that showcases both great blackberry fruit and sweet tannins right at the forefront. There is also fine acidity and a layer of wood that gives a dry, firm, age-worthy aftertaste.

Hello. Take textbook St.-Julien warmed fig, blueberry compote and blackberry reduction notes along with ample graphite, bramble and tobacco flavors, then dial it up a notch. This has terrific energy to offset the...

(JD 94-97 points) The top wine, the 2021 Château Léoville Poyferré is a beauty and certainly makes the most of the vintage. Based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot that...

This wine was added to the output of Château Léoville Las Cases alongside Clos de Marquis from the 2007 vintage. It is technically the ‘true’ second wine as Clos de Marquis comes from entirely separate vines. Not an...

Complex aromas of dried flowers, dark fruits such as currants and plums and then a wet-earth undertone. Wet licorice as well. Full body, firm and silky tannins and an entrancing finish. Tight and polished. Drink in 2022...

Delivers fabulous aromas of crushed red fruits, with leather, tar, tobacco and mint. Full-bodied, offering supersoft and silky tannins, as well as a beautiful polish. Open and luscious, with amazing richness of fruit and...

(VN 96-98 points) The 2021 Ducru-Beaucaillou is a pretty significant departure from the past, as it is nearly pure Cabernet Sauvignon. A deep, aristocratic wine, the 2021 possesses remarkable intensity from start to...

Attractive aromas of blackberries, plum skins, cloves, cardamom, dark chocolate, cedar and graphite. Some wet stones, too. Full-bodied, opulent and broad-shouldered. Structured and refined. It has a deep core of ripe...

This style of vintage really suits Gloria, with its cheerful, exuberant character, silky tannins and clear power. You'll find plenty of precision and bite through the blueberry and cassis fruits, excellent quality...

Currants and dark fruits with hints of licorice. Full and silky with ripe tannins and berry. Cigar tobacco and berry. Sweet tobacco. This is a wine that shows serious depth of fruit and refined tannins. Better in 2016.

The 2009 Ducru-Beaucaillou is pure perfection and a much more sexy, opulent wine compared to the 2010. Crème de cassis, licorice, spice-box, lead pencil shavings and dried flower notes all – literally – soar from the...

A sleeper of the vintage as well as the finest wine I have yet tasted from this estate, Lalande-Borie is made by Ducru Beaucaillou’s proprietor, Bruno Borie. He has turned out a graceful, charming, seductive St.-Julien...

(95–97 points) Barrel Sample. Loaded with juicy acidity and layers of spice. The wine is packed with fruit that contrasts with the firm tannins that lie in the background giving a polished structure to this ageworthy...

This wine is based on tannins yet it also has weight and a complex fruit structure. Its power lies in the density of its texture.

Richly spicy with swathes of black fruit and dark tannins, this powerful wine also shows great elegance. Juicy fruits shine through the structure to give a wine with a good future. Drink this rich wine from 2024.

Ducru-Beaucaillou has recently re-released several vintages from the era when there was some sort of TCA contamination (in my opinion) in the cellars here, such as there was in Cuné’s property of Contino. The refurbished...