Chateau Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse 2022

Deep dark ruby in colour with an opaque core, purple reflections, and subtle brightening on the rim. On the nose, a multi-faceted bouquet of black forest berries, delicate herbal spices, subtle floral nuances, and a hint of crystallised violets in the background. The juicy, full-bodied palate is freshly structured and rich in finesse, with a creamy texture, red berry nuances, and a lingering, citrussy-mineral finish, An immensely delicate wine with excellent aging potential, you would never think this had 14.5% alcohol.

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.

• Review Date: November 2023

Flowers, black raspberries, crushed rocks, saffron, cloves, licorice, and plum liqueur create the nose. Elegant, silky, and fresh, there is intensity along with a haunting sense of purity to the fruits. The wine is perfectly balanced between power, and refinement, which you can easily taste and feel in its layers of ripe, sweet, sensuously-textured fruits. The seamless, mineral-packed finish crosses the 50 second mark with ease. The wine blends 69% Merlot with 31% Cabernet Franc. 14.9% ABV, 3.55 pH. The harvest took place September 6 - September 23. This is the earliest harvest in the history of the estate. Yields were 42 hectoliters per hectare.

• Drinking Window: 2027 - 2055
• Reviewer Name: Jeff Leve
• Review Date: May 2023

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.

• Review Date: April 2023

One of the clear standouts of the vintage! A sensual, fun, salivating and sublime wine from winemaker Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse that manages to give such generosity, power, terroir markers and overall drinkability. Aromatic, scented, open and expressive with cherries, blackcurrants, purple flowers and crushed stones. Sleek and supple, sharp, tangy acidity and concentrated ripe fruit - it’s forward and intense, direct but defined and detailed. Fine and supportive tannins have bite and a mineral tang putting you squarely in St-Emilion on limestone. Raw and wild in a way, but so expressive and open - honest and just such a captivating wine that belies the heat of the vintage with its cool menthol, blue fruits and lifted finish. Streamlined and focussed, sustained, determined and characterful - sleek in the best way, this is confident but not showy. Succulent, classy, polished. A brilliant wine. 3.5pH. A yield of 42hl/ha. Harvest 6 - 9 September for Merlot and 23 September for Cabernet Franc. Julien Viaud and Axel Marchal consultants. 98-100 points.

• Reviewer Name: Georgina Hindle
• Review Date: April 2023

The 2022 Beauséjour is fabulous. I find it better from bottle than it was in barrel. Explosive aromatics from the Franc make a strong first impression. Bright acids drive through a core of dark red fruit, blood orange, spice, new leather and espresso. All the elements meld together seamlessly. What a vivid and gorgeous wine this is. I especially admire the long, saline finish. This is a superb effort from the team led by Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse.

• Drinking Window: 2030 - 2062
• Reviewer Name: Antonio Galloni
• Review Date: April 2023

The blend is 31% Cabernet Franc and 69% Merlot, which is the highest ever percentage of Cabernet Franc here. This exudes class on the nose, a mélange of lightly desiccated black cherry, currant, powdered chalk and violets with a touch of slate and graphite. The palate is similarly convincing, beginning in a polished, seamless, elegant style, with a core of blackcurrant, raspberry and red cherry fruits, wrapped in a tense limestone frame, with bright calcareous acidity giving it a great freshness. This has precision, elegance and energy in abundance, supported by a rich and tightly stretched frame of ripe tannins. It finishes firm and bright, and has great length too, filled out with those powdery tannins. This is a great result in this vintage, which is the first year Joséphine worked the whole vintage from pruning onwards, having arrived in April 2021. Tasted twice. The alcohol on the label is 14.5%.

• Drinking Window: 2030 - 2065
• Reviewer Name: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
• Review Date: May 2023

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!

• Drinking Window: 2030 - 2065
• Reviewer Name: Neal Martin
• Review Date: April 2023

The 2022 Beauséjour (Duffau Lagarrosse) saw a slightly longer élevage than usual, due to construction at the new winery, but that seems to have suited this broad-shouldered, powerful vintage very well. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of blackberries, blood orange, espresso roast, bay leaf and vanilla pod, it's full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with lively acids, chalky tannins and a long, creamy finish. This blend of 69% Merlot and 31% Cabernet Franc is the second vintage made by Joséphine Duffau Lagarrosse since she took control of the family estate in April 2021.

• Reviewer Name: William Kelley
• Review Date: April 2022