Aromas of blackberries, blackcurrants, new leather and bark follow through to a full body with a dense, deep palate that goes on and on, but is still shy and reserved. Large amount of ultra fine, cashmere-like tannins that are silky, sleek and wonderfully integrated. Extremely long and focused. Needs at least four to five years to start opening. A beautiful wine for the cellar. Try after 2027.

Intensely colored, the wine is completely opaque. The next thing you notice is the aromatics which pop thanks to the array of flowers, black and dark red fruits, forest floor, espresso, wet earth, tobacco leaf and bitter chocolate. Full-bodied, concentrated, rich, deep, opulent, fresh and intense, the wine coats your palate and sticks with you. This is a good thing because it is difficult not to want more of all those sweet, ripe, luscious fruits. The purity, symmetry and length keep on going for close to 60 seconds! Give it at least 12-15 years to age and it could hit the triple digit mark! The wine blends 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with 15% Merlot, 14.5% ABV. The Grand Vin was made from only 35% of the harvest.

The 2018 Ducru-Beaucaillou is composed of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot, aged 18 months in 100% new barriques. It has a pH of 3.7, 14.5% alcohol and an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 95. Deep purple-black colored, it has a powerful nose of baked black cherries, blackberry preserves and crème de cassis with nuances of menthol, pencil lead, cedar chest and Indian spices, plus fragrant wafts of violets and licorice emerging after a few minutes. Medium to full-bodied, the palate bursts with impactful black fruits and exotic spices layers, supported by firm, ripe grainy tannins and bags of freshness, finishing on a lingering fragrant earth note. There is a brightness to the wine—surprising freshness—and yet it remains very rich and hedonic, presenting an extraordinary vinous paradox that will blow away fans of this great estate.

The 2018 Ducru-Beaucaillou, tasted just after my in-bottle tastings, is all mint and violet over the nose, precocious and generous, very pure and enticing. The palate is medium-bodied with a lot of new oak that will be subsumed with time. This is very pure, beautifully balanced, silky smooth with great precision on the finish. It is a superb 2018 that will need at least a decade in the cellar and with even more pixelation than the bottle earlier this year, it gets another precision point in my score. Tasted at the Ducru Beaucaillou vertical at the château.

The 2018 Ducru-Beaucaillou is surprisingly reticent at this stage, almost shockingly so. I imagine that won't be an issue in time. If anything, I am quite struck by the wine's energy and drive. Dark-fleshed fruit, spice, mint, lavender and new oak build in the glass. From barrel, the Ducru was opulent and sensual, but it appears to be going through a closed phase at the moment. Decanting helps, but I would not be in any rush to drink this. The 2018 is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot aged for 18 months in 100% new French oak.

Beautiful, coiled, brooding nose with floral perfume. Palate is silky textured with fantastic purity, power, precision, balance and energy. Great purity of fruit and expression on the finish, which is long and elegantly perfumed. A very fine Ducru. - April 2019

Black core. Intense black fruit. Highly structured but smooth, like thick velvet. Generous in fruit and massive but still surprisingly fresh. Long and refined finish even with all this power and density. Rich but not overly sweet or overripe. Savoury long finish. Hard to judge now.Julia Harding, jancisrobinson.com, April 2019

Looking at the 2018 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, I was stopped in my tracks at this beauty and continue to think 2018 is an incredible vintage for Bordeaux. Checking in as 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot that was raised in new barrels, it has an essence of cassis character as well notes of tobacco leaf, dark chocolate, crushed stone, and cedar pencil. Cut from the same cloth as the 2009, although with slightly more polished tannins, it's full-bodied and massively concentrated and structured, yet flawlessly balanced, with incredible purity and no hard edges. Dec 2023

One of the greatest wines that this domain has produced in Bruno Borie's era, the 2018 Ducru-Beaucaillou sneaks up on you with this fabulous, yet singular bouquet of spices, iris, violet, dark cherry and blackcurrant. The oak is perfectly integrated and intertwined with graphite notes with time. The palate is concentrated but brimming with energy, yet what really stands out is its confounding freshness as well as the finesse and precise contours of the tannic framework. An already profound wine that will reach new heights over the next two decades. Drinking Window: 2022 - 2050
Tasted by: Yohan Castaing (at Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, 01 Jun 2021)
Part of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou vertical tasting: 1953-2018