Fantastic aromas of blackberries, blackcurrants, licorice and walnuts. So St.-Julien. Full-bodied with a solid core of fruit and chewy tannins that are really long and serious. Like the 1995 Ducru! One for the cellar. Needs at least until after 2028.

Where you can drink Le Petit Ducru relatively soon, with La Croix you need to wait a few years for the structure to soften. The tannins are silky, the black fruits drenched in espresso, liquorice root spice and smoked oak. An extremely successful La Croix, sexy and powerful while still elegant and sculpted. Give it five or six years from now, and expect a drinking window of at least 15 years. Almost entirely from specific plots within the Ducru vineyard, plus a few young vines of the Grand Vin. 60% new oak.

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.

The 2019 La Croix Ducru Beaucaillou is matured for 12 months in 60% new oak. Interestingly, that Earl Grey tincture continues to define this very classically styled wine, enhancing the black fruit. Hints of ash emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and plenty of graphite-infused black fruit that render this quite Pauillac in style. Impressively persistent on the tobacco-tinged finish. Leave this for 4–5 years in bottle just to smooth its edges. -- Neal Martin

The wine has power and density. Packed with generous, firm tannins and dense fruits, the wine is a balanced blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Produced from a specific parcel, the wine will age well. Drink from 2026. Roger Voss

Polished, fresh, elegant and loaded with currants, cherries, tobacco, smoke, licorice, espresso and leafy herbs, the wine is medium-bodied, forward, juicy and vibrant with lift, energy and refinement on the palate and in the fruit-filled, soft-textured finish. Drink from 2023-2036.

Bramble fruit, hedgerow, some rose-perfumed florality - expressive on the nose with additional herbal notes and green bell pepper nuances. Excellent succulence on the palate with a juicy, wet stone minerality. Fruit is high toned, tannins are muscular and very present but also quite polished with spiced edges that tingle the tongue with a combination of spice and smoke. The elements are there but they're also a little closed right now. Power and length. Buy and hold on to. A second wine which used to include a lot of the fruit that went into the grand vin but now the majority of grapes comes from their own separate parcels in the centre of St-Julien. Drinking Window 2025 - 2039

(91+ points) 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. - William Kelley