Wine from France

jamessuckling.com, 99 points: (JS 98-99 points) Blackcurrants, orange peel, flowers and tar with hints of graphite. Full-bodied with a creamy texture of exquisitely polished tannins. It goes on and on. Intense flavors at the end, too, with lead pencil...

TheWineCellarInsider.com, 99 points: (97-99 points) Deep garnet in hue, the wine shoots from glass with tobacco leaf, currants, spice box, cigar wrapper, blackberry and cassis. Elegant, fresh and vibrant, the wine is silky, long and precise. There is a cool...

jebdunnuck.com, 99 points: (JD 97-99 points) A blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, brought up in new oak, the 2020 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou offers a gorgeously pure nose of crème de cassis, graphite, crushed stone, toasty oak, and...

jamessuckling.com, 99 points: (JS 98-99 points) This is integrated, with superb density and beauty, offering blackcurrant, mineral and some bark. Full-bodied, yet so polished and refined. Crushed stone. Lots of expression and texture to this wine...

jamessuckling.com, 99 points: (JS 98-99 points) This is incredibly classic in style with so much currant, lead pencil, crushed stone and sweet tobacco. It’s full-bodied with minerally, stoney and powerful tannins. It goes on and one. Real Las Cases...

Wine Enthusiast, 95 points: Here is a huge ripe and luxurious wine, with great power. The texture is solid, filled with firm tannins, the flavors are black and ripe. Along with the power, though, is much of the elegance and poise that characterizes...

jamessuckling.com, 100 points: (JS 99-100 points) This has incredible power and drive with blackberry, black olive and graphite. It’s full-bodied, yet dynamic and agile, with so much polished and muscular tannin. Yet, it remains in harmony and balance...

jamessuckling.com, 99 points: Ripe black fruit, clove, licorice, pine and walnut husk on the nose. Bitter chocolate and coffee, too. It’s full-bodied with firm, tight tannins. Muscular and very formed. Energetic and precise with long, chewy layers and...

Wine Spectator, 92 points: This is grippy and old-school in style, with a core of warmed fig and black currant paste flavors framed by ample charcoal and baker's chocolate notes, but this is well-integrated, and everything cruises nicely through a...

jebdunnuck.com, 96 points: I continue to just love the 2009 Château Rauzan-Ségla. It's such a classic Margaux, remarkable for its elegance and purity yet still showing classic 2009 depth, richness, and sexiness. Giving up loads of crème de cassis...

Wine Enthusiast, 100 points: An immensely structured wine, this is complex, concentrated and yet so contained. The wine impresses with its balance, layers of succulent black-currant fruits and effortless style. A wine for the long term, it should not...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 98 points: The 2018 d'Yquem is all lime cordial, grapefruit oil and mandarin peel to begin. With a little coaxing, the fireworks really begin, letting off a whole array of honeysuckle, candied ginger, dried pineapple, lemon...

Wine Enthusiast, 98 points: (96-98 points) The wine has both the power and the elegant structure that is associated with this estate. The rich tannins are dense while not hard, emphasizing the freshness of the black currant fruits.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 99 points: (WA 97-99 points) Composed of 48.6% Merlot, 43.2% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.2% Cabernet Franc, harvested from 7th to 29th September, the 2020 La Mission Haut-Brion has an alcohol of 14.7%. It needs considerable swirling...

jebdunnuck.com, 98 points: (96-98+) Cassis, graphite, blackberries, scorched earth, and graphite notes all emerge from the 2018 Château Lynch-Bages, which is a rich, blockbuster style beauty up with the finest vintages to date from this historic...

Wine Enthusiast, 99 points: (97-99 points) Barrel Sample. This wine's floral perfume is matched by generous tannins that surprise by their strength. The fruit flavors offer a mix of black and red berries. They are finely structured and concentrated...

jamessuckling.com, 92 points: 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.

TheWineCellarInsider.com, 94 points: Deeply colored, with an assertive nose of espresso, licorice, cocoa, black cherry and smoke, the wine is concentrated, full-bodied, ripe, round, opulent and fruity. There is lift, energy and length here on the palate...

TheWineCellarInsider.com, 96 points: This is the best wine from the Becot family yet! The wine is sexy, fleshy, opulent, polished and packed with all the fresh, ripe, silky, pure red fruits you need. The crushed rock, thyme and floral accents make this even...

TheWineCellarInsider.com, 97 points: Deeply colored, the wine is all about its sensuality. Texturally, the wine is silk and velvet with its layers of sweet, luscious plums, cherries, smoke and licorice. Full-bodied with a fabulous depth of flavor, seamless...

Vinous, 95 points: The 2010 Branaire-Ducru has a lovely mélange of red and black fruit, hints of dried blood and autumn leaves suggesting that this is moving into its secondary phase. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, a fine...

Wine Enthusiast, 91 points: New wood and high extraction are the dominant characteristics of this wine. That makes it in a modern, polished style, which will certainly evolve well, eventually arriving at something that is big and bold. Give it 4–5...

Wine Spectator, 96 points: This has a lovely core of mulled cassis, damson plum and raspberry reduction notes, framed with an applewood note that integrates nicely while red tea, savory and chalky mineral notes develop through the finish...

Wine Enthusiast, 93 points: This complex wine has rich tannins and layers of new wood atop dark black berries. At the same time, it is rounding out well, offering spice, sweet acidity and a terse freshness that is infectious. It's a very fruity wine...

jebdunnuck.com, 98 points: The 2015 Ermitage Les Greffieux comes from vines located at the base of the hill, just under the le Méal Vineyard. Blackberries, blueberries, liquid violet, dusty minerality and hints of beef blood all flow to a ripe...

Wine Enthusiast, 97 points: (95–97) Barrel Sample. This wine's ripeness is intense, just hinting at an impressive future. The dry core of botrytis balances the honey and the spice, along with fresh lemon curd. This is likely to be a very fine wine.

jamessuckling.com, 99 points: This is a great Yquem, delivering thrilling purity and intensity. The nose offers intense aromas of fresh and dried apricot and peach pastry, as well as freshly baked creme brulee, candied and fresh orange and kumquat...

jamessuckling.com, 94 points: What a gorgeous and supple young wine with ultra-fine tannins and vivid acidity. Medium to full body and direct and driven tannins. Shows such beauty. Better in 2020 but already beautiful.

jebdunnuck.com, 100 points: (JD 97-100 points) One of my favorite wines in the vintage is the 2020 Château La Fleur-Petrus, which reminds me slightly of the 2016, even though the growing season was quite different. A blend of mostly Merlot with...