| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
This Saint Emilion property is managed by Nicolas Thienpont, assisted by consultant Stephane Derenoncourt. The 6.8 hectares of vines are planted with 76% Merlot and 24% Cabernet Franc. 2000 to 2500 cases are produced annually.
The 2017 Beausejour Duffau is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. It leaps with notes of blackberry pie and plum preserves, followed by hints of dried herbs, tree bark, and black truffles. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers a firm structure of grainy tannins and plenty of freshness to support the muscular black fruits, finishing long and minerally.
The 2017 Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse in bottle offers a mélange of red and black fruit: cassis, raspberry coulis, veins of Valrona chocolate and a touch of crushed stone. It feels fresh and focused. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, saturated tannins. There is plenty of black fruit here laced with traces of marmalade and fig jam, perhaps a touch exotic considering the vintage but everything is controlled and focused on the finish. I would just like to see more personality here - maybe that will evolve with time? 2025 - 2045
This has a very attractive, ripe black-fruit nose with toasted spices, violets and dark-stone notes. Iodine and cedar, too. The palate is powerful and has quite intense flavors of blackberries and blueberries with a super rich and ripe frame of tannin that carries long and expands the finish in impressive style. Very long. Try from 2025.
This is one of the best examples of this wine that I have tasted, reaching the same heights as some of the biggest names in this vintage, and barely a step down from 2016 - great stuff from these guys this year. It's firm, bright, intense and deep, with salinity, grip and a lovely seam of freshness. It has a really excellent, juicy character and good persistency, with notes of liquorice and dark chocolate.
Drinking Window 2025 - 2040
Very dark. Ripe, dark black plums and just a touch of red cherry. Then quite oaky on the palate, rich, firm, smooth, with chocolate on the finish from the oak. Needs quite a bit of time. Chewy on the second taste. No lack of fruit but the structure dominates at the moment.
Drink 2024-2034
Very deep and inky for the vintage, with a very sweet nose of raisins and blackberry liqueur. The palate is sweet, silky and rich with lots of glycerol and dried fruits coming through. Moving through the mid-palate to the finish, there is a rush of both fruit and oak tannin that coats the palate and blocks the perception of fruit on the finish. The extraction makes this a difficult wine to judge at this stage, leaving flavours of charred wood and smoke with a little fruit compote. It may resolve in time, but this is a very modern, rich and extractive style that eschews the style of the vintage.
The fruit on the nose is ripe the palate has a mix of sweet fruit quite fleshy in the middle. Red fruits underpin a lighter feel and although it fills out at the back finish is tight and ungenerous. 2024-30
This is a decent effort from Beauséjour in that the fruit has clarity and there is not too much oak on board. Sadly, the tannins are massive, but they seem pliable enough and so I expect them to calm down in time.
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2017 Beausejour (Duffau Lagarrosse) prances out of the glass with energetic notes of crushed black and red plums, black cherries and black raspberries plus wafts of potpourri, oolong tea and lavender. The medium-bodied palate is oh-so-pretty with bags of fragrant fruit and a firm, plush frame, finishing long and perfumed. 2021 - 2048
The 2017 Beauséjour Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse was picked at 38hl/ha from 22 September to 2 October for the Merlot and 29 September to 2 October for the Cabernet Franc. Around two-thirds of the crop entered the Grand Vin and 55% is matured in new oak. It has a not dissimilar bouquet to the Pavie-Macquin (also overseen by Nicolas Thienpont) perhaps showing a little more volume and decadence: macerated small dark cherries, fig, black plum and a touch of marmalade. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe tannin, a fine bead of acidity, closing in a little towards the second half compared to the Pavie-Macquin that remains open throughout. There is a fine mineral core to this Saint-Émilion with a sappy, saliva-inducing finish. This will require four or five years in bottle and I wager that it should be consumed after the Pavie Macquin. Drink 2023 - 2045.
This is very driven and intense with so much limestone and salt character on the palate. Dark fruits, too. Linear and chewy, especially on the long finish. Beautiful center palate of fruit.
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Beausejour Heritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse is slightly closed, revealing glimpses at bright, cheery black cherries, black berries and wild blueberries with very serious preserved plums, licorice and mocha in the background and a waft of fragrant soil. Medium to full-bodied, it has a firm frame of ripe tannins and seamless freshness supporting the subdued, earthy layers, finishing long and minerally. It should be wonderfully long-lived but will need time to enjoy!
