Beausejour (Duffau) 2023

St Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Classé B

GBP Price: Size Quantities Units status Actions
£624 per Case 6x75cl 0 - [Add to shopping basket]
Tasting Notes

Score: 93 - 95 Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com Date: 08 May 2024

Enticingly rich raspberry and red cherry fruits on the opening, supple and welcoming without sacrificing precision and an effortless balance of red liqourice, saffron, lemongrass and pumice stone. A delicious 2nd wine. 46hl/h yield, 40% new oak.

Score: 92 Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux Maturity: 2027-2040 Date: 02 May 2024

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.

Score: 92 - 95 Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com Maturity: 2030-2053 Date: 30 April 2024

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.

Score: 94 - 96 Neal Martin, Vinous.com Maturity: 2028-2050 Date: 29 April 2024

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.

Score: 96 - 98 William Kelley, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Date: 26 April 2024

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.

Score: 95 - 96 James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com Date: 24 April 2024