2023 Château Beauséjour, St Emilion, Bordeaux

The 2023 Beauséjour-Duffau is a powerful, resonant wine. In this early tasting, it does not feel totally put-together, but this sample shows good depth and plenty of potential. The 2023 is 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, more Franc than in the past. That choice lends gorgeous aromatic presence, but also more structure. This is going to be a fascinating wine to follow.

Drink 2030 - 2053

The Grand Vin 2023 Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse) is based on 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc that was harvested from the 13th of September to the 3rd of October. Vinified all in concrete, the élevage here will span 14-16 months in 60% new French oak. It brings a richer, slightly darker style with ripe currants, leafy herbs, tobacco, and smoky nuances. These carry to a medium-bodied Saint-Emilion with beautiful overall balance, a juicy, vibrant, layered style, ripe tannins, and terrific yet integrated acidity pH 3.4). It reminds me of the 2001 from this château and will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and evolve gracefully.

The 2023 Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse was picked from September 13 to 29 for the Merlot and October 2 and 3 for the Cabernet Franc at 46h:/ha. It matured in 61% new oak. This is the last vintage to be made in the old vat room, the new one due to be completed in July. Allowing the barrel sample five minutes to open, it has a very succinct bouquet, predominantly red fruit with light loamy and crushed stone aromas, a touch of wilted rose petal in the background. The palate is very fresh on the entry with finely chiseled tannins. There is a lot of mineralité here deriving from the vineyard's limestone terroir, and the tongue tingles in the mouth not unlike actually licking limestone!) Quite linear, chalky and tensile toward the finish, this is a finely tuned and complex wine that is in the similar style of, say, Canon. It's not as audacious as the previous vintage, but potentially more cerebral.

Drink 2028 - 2050

The purity of fruit is impressive here, with raspberry, blueberry and mineral character. It’s so precise and focused with medium body and lovely length.

The 2023 Beausejour formerly Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse but since 2021 simply named Beausejour) is a blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc. It is ageing in 60% new oak barrels and it has a pH of 3.41. The color is a deep garnet-purple and after a swirl or two, it rockets out of the glass with intense scents of redcurrants, Bing cherries, and fresh blackberries, giving way to an undercurrent of candied violets, fragrant soil, and crushed rocks. The medium-bodied palate is a very tightly wound coil of red berry, mineral, and earthy flavors, framed by firm, fine-grained tannins and great tension, finishing long and perfumed. Gorgeous!

Drink 2029 - 2050

Joséphine Duffau Lagarrosse's third vintage at this terrific hillside terroir is her most impressive to date. The 2023 Beauséjour Duffau Lagarrosse) offers up aromas of black raspberries, mulberries, violets, spices and incense, followed by a medium to full-bodied, deep and layered palate that's seamless, suave and concentrated, with lively acids, beautiful purity of fruit and a long, mineral, gently balsamic finish. It's a blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, picked on nine days between September 13 and October 3. Duffau Lagarrosse's work on oak selection she favors Burgundy's cooperage Cadus, among others) has delivered much more seamless integration at this early stage, and her attentive approach to extraction is already bearing fruit in the form of tannins that are more polished and refined than was formerly the case at this address. It's a brilliant effort from a property with almost limitless potential.

A stellar wine from this newly-named Château Beauséjour estate removing the Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse). Herbal and dark fruit on the nose, blackcurrant with cocoa powder, liquorice, some exotic spices as well as purple floral notes, peonies and roses. Juicy supple and alive in the glass, this has lift and get-go from the start, super clean and precise with a lovely bite and grip to the tannins. Fine and chalky, mouthfilling, so you get the ample structure but keeps its direction and flow. Power is there for sure, which some 2023s don’t have, but this is also elegant and so precise. The flavour also really lingers. This has a vertical aspect, layered with muscle and fine sinew. Juicy and succulent, pure and moreish - really makes you want another sip and somehow feels approachable already. Balanced and delicious. Consultants Julien Viaud and Axel Marchal. 46hl/ha yield. 3.4pH. Ageing 14-16 months, 60% new oak. 70% grand vin.

Drink 2030 - 2050

Somehow manages to feel understated and yet hard to ignore, with its vivid aromatic spirals of peonies and crushed rose petals, set against raspberry and brambled autumnal fruits. The mid palate is what really grips you here, with a flashy but extremely pure shot of liquorice root, liquorice bud, aniseed and fennel. Slows things down through the palate with pumice stone grainy tannins, and contrasts the concentration of 2022 at this estate with balance and finisse. Harvest September 13 to October 3, Axel Marchal and Julien Viaud consultants. There will be a new wine cellar ready for the harvest of 2024, more concrete vats from 9 currently up to 15). Camille de Vigneau the technical director with Josephine Duffau Lagarrosse. Brilliant winemaking, one of the wines of the vintage. 60% new oak.

Drink 2030 - 2045