2018 - Ducru-Beaucaillou, Saint-Julien

The 2018 Ducru-Beaucaillou, 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot, is deep garnet-purple in color. It erupts with bombastic scents of creme de cassis, fruitcake, and black cherry preserves followed by touches of star anise, dark chocolate, cedar, and violets. The medium to full-bodied palate is rich, ripe, and impactful, delivering firm, ripe, grainy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing long and spicy.

This was a big vintage, with high temperatures giving tannins with shoulders and muscles, and shows the ability of Ducru to draw out balance even when the overall wine is so concentrated. An impressive achievement by the winemaking team, great quality, not bypassing the exuberance and creaminess of the year, but giving it form and definition. Expect plenty of blackberry liqueur alongside creamy damson and blackberry fruit, with liqourice and smoked earth. Harvest September 25 to October 10. 100% new oak. Emmanuel Bonneau technical director, Eric Boissenot consultant.

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.

'A successful flowering, though the wet spring weather brought a significant threat of mildew. A glorious summer with hot, dry conditions and just enough rain from early July through to the end of harvest in October, with record hours of sunshine. Optimal harvest conditions.' Harvest: 25 September – 10 October. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot. 18 months in new French oak.Very dark, gleaming crimson. Deep, dark and savoury on the nose. Lots of creamy, oaky power here. Deep, thick, chewy texture. Incredibly smooth texture to these tannins but they are dominant. Ripe and dark but not sweet in its fruit. So chewy and dense that it gums your gums, for now at least. (JH)