Blackberries with lavender, cedar, sandalwood and flowers. Very subtle aromas. It’s medium- to full-bodied with a very tight palate of fine, structured tannins that run the length of the wine. Closed at the end. Shows excellent precision and aging potential. 81.5% merlot and 18.5% cabernet franc. Try after 2028.

The 2020 Beauséjour Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse is racy, sophisticated and wonderfully polished. Crushed red berry fruit, lavender, rose petal, cinnamon and blood orange all race through the 2020. This is the first vintage overseen by consulting winemaker Julien Viaud, who seems to be going for a less extracted style than that favored by Nicolas Thienpont. There is plenty of size and vertical explosive energy, but the 2020 is also wonderfully finessed, especially in its tannins. It's a striking wine by any measure.

Power, finesse, length, purity, and complexity is all over the place here. In the nose, with its elements of dried flowers, espresso, plums, cherries, licorice, spice, cocoa, herbs and crushed rocks. As good as that is, on the palate, the wine flows over your palate with its waves of vibrant, plums, cherries, black raspberries, blue fruits, salty tannins and purity. The lively, vibrant, long finish that doesn't know when to quit. That is a good thing because you want to enjoy it again and again. Drink from 2026-2055. Tasted March 2023

Dark and sultry, this is heady with ripe, perfumed fruits that dominate the palate giving vertical layers of freshness, acidity and fruit concentration. It has style to it, a sleekness to the texture, classy with a lovely core of juiciness. Still a little constricted with lots of liquorice and graphite on show and a touch of saltiness towards the finish. Really well worked, mouthfilling, weighty, intense, forward and energetic. It's bigger and broader in terms of frame and flavour than the 2019 – with floral, blood orange, blueberry and bramble fruit nuances, but carries the weight well, remaining focused. I love the expression, it's dark, cool, sleek and textured. Just a gorgeous delicious wine! Drinking Window: 2027 - 2056
Tasted by: Georgina Hindle (at Bordeaux, 03 Jan 2023)
Part of St-Emilion 2020 in bottle: overview plus top-scoring wines

The 2020 Beauséjour (Duffau Lagarrosse) is showing well in bottle, offering up aromas of dark berries, plums, licorice, rose petals and spices framed by creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, layered and fleshy, with a rich core of fruit, lively acids and chalky structure, it was vinified by Nicolas Thienpont and his team, but Joséphine Duffau modified the final blend, which includes 19% Cabernet Franc and the balance Merlot. Tasted next to the 2018 and 2019, the 2020 is somewhat more restrained, but it is the end of a stylistic chapter rather than the beginning of a new one. WK

(81% M, 19% CF; 27hl/ha)
Lovely nose; dense, mineral-saturated, fine, discreet black fruit; very full, but not heavy, nicely defined by its acidity; a flavor with a marked mineral element behind the abundant fruit, complex across the palate, with an almost creamy character from the new oak and Merlot combination, then very long to finish. This will make a fine bottle given sufficient time. Like the Larcis Ducasse and the Pavie Macquin the “house” style of winemaking means all the wines have a noticeable tannic structure to them, more than many these days. So, you need to like that per se, or give them a fair amount of bottle-aging. 2032–55+.

The 2020 Beauséjour Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse is aged in around 60% new oak and made by Nicolas Thienpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt; Joséphine Duffau tweaked the blend when she took over in April of the following year. This was bottled at the end of May 2022. It has a perfumed nose, predominantly red fruit, sous-bois and a subtle Japanese nori scent. Quite "contained" at the moment, I can see this shutting down. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, dark cherries, bilberry and hints of black pepper and black olive (the latter is accentuated in the chateau bottle). Nicely balanced and persistent, this Saint-Émilion should age with class. Tasted twice with consistent notes.

Tasted blind. Deep crimson. Lively black fruit. Fresh and pretty chewy in texture yet these components seem balanced for now and for the future. Wholesome, deep. (JH)

The 2020 Château Beauséjour (Duffau-Lagarrosse), made mostly by the team of Nicolas Thienpont (the final blend was put together by Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse), is another tour de force from this incredible terroir, and undeniably one of the wines of the vintage. Based on 81% Merlot and 19% Cabernet Franc brought up in 70% new French oak, it offers a sensationally pure bouquet of black raspberries, blueberries, scorched earth, graphite, and a dense, smoky, floral character that emerges with time in the glass. With a voluptuous, layered mouthfeel, gorgeous mid-palate depth, building tannins, and a liqueur of mineral-like character on the finish, it shows the density, purity, precision, and vibrancy of this vintage perfectly and displays that rare mix of richness, intensity, elegance, and length that are the hallmarks of a truly great wine. This is unquestionably in the ranks of the 2009, 2010, and 2016 and will evolve for 40 years or more.