2020 Ch. Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse

The 2020 Beauséjour Duffau Lagarrosse has a high-toned, very concentrated bouquet with ripe red cherries and licorice. It is missing the delineation of its peers and recent vintage, such as the 2022 and nascent 2023. The palate is medium-bodied, with fleshy dark berry fruit, white pepper and a touch of tobacco. Quite spicy on the finish, it's not bad, but it needs more sophistication—that's what Joséphine Duffau is bringing to the table. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

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.