2022 Château Beausejour (Duffau Lagarrosse)

Violets, ripe black cherries, spring flowers, cassis, and a riveting sense of chalky minerality all shine in the 2022 Château Beauséjour (Duffau-Lagarrosse), another heavenly 2022 that has gorgeous tannins, a seamless, layered, multi-dimensional mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, and a great finish. It's not massive or incredibly concentrated, yet it has flawless balance and remarkable length. The pH is 3.45, with an alcohol of 14.5%. It's a more elegant, pure, seamless example of the 2020 vintage and has everything in the right place. Give bottles just 4-6 years if you can and it’s clearly going to have 20-30 years of overall prime drinking, as well as a gradual decline thereafter.

The 2022 Beauséjour has a gorgeous bouquet with pure redcurrant, raspberry and wild strawberry fruit scents. Hints of pencil shavings and orange sorbet emerge in the background. It’s very harmonious and the oak is seamlessly integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, fresh and vibrant with crisp acidity. This is a more intense Beauséjour under Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse, yet it retains delineation from start to finish, with the tongue tingling on the aftertaste. Exchanging the wine between two glasses really brings out the true character of this fabulous Saint-Émilion that is going to give a lot of pleasure. Chapeau Joséphine Duffau!

What a stunningly complex St.-Emilion from Beausejour, with spot-on aromas of warm bread and roasted spices from the wood. The nose also shows orange rind, hazelnuts, minerals and touches of cocoa powder, hibiscus, mussel shells, graphite and black licorice. Concentrated and compact in flavor, but juicy and effortless. Really fine-grained and focused, with chalky tannins slowly developing and growing on the full-bodied palate before a lengthy finish that lasts for a minute. An incredible wine. Drink from 2028, and this will age well over the next 20 years.