Another legendary Ducru Beaucaillou in the making, the 2020 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou hasn't budged since release. Full-bodied, concentrated, and layered, it has incredible purity in its cassis and darker, almost blue fruits, some classic yet primary tobacco, graphite, and mineral notes, a dense mid-palate, and awesome length on the finish. It's very much in the style of the 2010 and deserves at least a decade of bottle age. I won't be around to taste it, but I suspect this will still be offering pleasure on its 100th birthday.

Evocative and moreish, a Ducru that beguiles and delights from the start with a scented nose full of cedar, rose, violets, cherries and damsons - a riot of Cabernet typicity. Vibrant and pulsing on the palate, this has grip and intention from the get-go. Massy, full and wide in the mouth - there’s density and this is broad but it’s delicate too - a sense of weightlessness with such movement and energy and a soft sweet, succulent grip throughout. Powerful with present tannins that unravel slowly so there’s time to appreciate the details as they come. A thoughtful and intellectual wine that leaves a smile on your face.

The 2020 Ducru-Beaucaillou, 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, is deep garnet-purple in color. Classic notes of cassis, cedar, and graphite open out to nuances of menthol, tilled soil, tobacco, and violets. The medium-bodied palate is refreshing and savory, with grainy tannins and a long minerally finish. This is classic Ducru. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

I've tasted this vintage a few times recently, and each time its proved impossible to resist, showcasing precision and crafting, with concentrated and intense cassis and bilberry fruits, loaded up with cigar box, slate, sage and a delicate caress of crushed roses. Harvest September 11 to 30. Emmanuel Bonneau technical director, Eric Boissenot consultant. Anniversary of the founding 1720 marriage between Jacques de Bergeron and Marie Dejean, heiress of the vines that would become Ducru Beaucaillou, so this marks 300 years from the birth of the property.

With a dark hue, you instantly find incense, black cherries, flowers, spice, and a plethora of red and black fruits. The wine is concentrated, full-bodied, ripe, rich, soft, and polished. There is purity to the fruit, silk to the tannins, complexity on the mid-palate, and length in the finish. The fruit is bright, fresh, and pure with a beautiful sensation of elegance from start to finish. This gem should start to really unfurl after its 10th birthday and provide fabulous drinking for 25-35 years after that. This is a stunningly graceful Ducru Beaucaillou. Produced from blending 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, 13.5% ABV. Picking took place September 11 - September 30. Drink from 2027-2055.

(96-98 points) The 2020 Ducru Beaucaillou was picked from 11-30 September, matured entirely in new oak for an expected 18 months. It has a very succinct bouquet, not one that leaps from the glass and demands attention, but it unfolds slowly, at its own pace, revealing enticing scents of blackberry, cedar, iris petals and crushed stone. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit. There is a saline spine that runs through this Saint-Julien from start to finish, a quite enormous structure that exerts grip towards the finish. It is not a Ducru-Beaucaillou that goes out to deliver finesse or understatement, but one that you will have to cellar for a few years, pull out and have the superlatives ready. This is an immense and cerebral Ducru-Beaucaillou from Bruno Borie and his team. By Neal Marlin on June 2021

(96-98 points) Barrel Sample. The tannins are dense while the texture shows a dusty suspended character that gives the wine great charm. Yet, having said that, the concentration will give this wine long term aging both from the acidity and the structure. ROGER VOSS

Blackcurrants and blueberries with violets and crushed stone. Extremely aromatic. Full-bodied but very tight and reserved, with racy, almost steely tannins. Some subtle sweet fruit in the center palate. Great transparency and clarity. Super precision here. Vertical and polished. Try after 2028.

The 2020 Ducru-Beaucaillou unwinds in the glass with aromas of dark berries, pencil shavings, violets and pipe tobacco, all framed by creamy new oak. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, fleshy and concentrated, with a deep but tightly wound core that's still quite wrapped up in extract and oak tannin, even if it isn't quite as big-boned as its 2019 counterpart. It will require some patience. - William Kelley