2011 Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2011 Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20118012270
Prices start from £340.00 per case Buying options
2011 Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse, St Emilion, Bordeaux

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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6 x 75cl bottle
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Description

This wine was, for me, unquestionably the pick of the Nicolas Thienpont stable and one of the highlights of our Right Bank tastings. I could wax lyrical about the wonderful harmony between the grape varieties, the fruit, the tannins and the oak; I could add that it is subtle, profound and very long, but there is an undefinable extra, something almost ethereal which I would simply describe as "class" and which elevates this wine above most of its peers.

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate94+/100
Another brilliant wine of great nobility and finesse, the 2011 Beausejour-Duffau reveals a saturated chalky minerality as well as plenty of blue and black fruits, and fabulous precision and purity. It possesses a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel and a distinctive/singular style only possessed by the greatest wines. Give it 4-5 years of cellaring and drink it over the following two decades. It promises to be one of the longest lived wines of the vintage. At 14.7% alcohol, this is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 30/04/2014 Read more
Robert Parker92-94/100
Massive for the vintage (14.7% alcohol), this blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc from a small 16-acre vineyard was cropped at 21 hectoliters per hectare. It was made by the remarkably talented team of Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt. Inky/purple-colored with notes of crushed rocks, blackberry and blueberry liqueur and hints of charcoal and incense, this full-bodied, rich, dense offering admirably displays its exquisite terroir. Give the 2011 4-5 years of cellaring, and enjoy it over the following 20-25.
(Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - April 2012) Read more
Decanter17/20
Attractive fruit with a hint of oak. Acidity is a little strident but it has a firm, long, structured palate. Awkward at the tasting but potential here. Read more

About this WINE

Château Beauséjour

Château Beauséjour

Château Beauséjour is a 6.8-hectare jewel long recognised for the quality of its terroir; it has been a Premier Grand Cru Classé B since the first St Émilion classification. Almost half the vineyard sits atop the appellation’s limestone plateau, another half extends down onto the côtes. This was once part of a larger estate along with what is now Château Beau-Séjour Bécot.

In 2020, the estate was put up for sale. There were many bidders; the French authorities were called upon to oversee the final decision. Ultimately, members of the Duffau-Lagarrosse family bid successfully, in tandem with the owners of the Clarins beauty group.

The estate is today led by Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse and Prisca Courtin-Clarins, both of whom are in their early 30s. They took the reins with the 2021 vintage, following the acclaimed stewardship of Nicolas Thienpont and his team.

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St Émilion

St Émilion

St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank. 

St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel. 

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol.  Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.  

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices.  The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.

St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012

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Merlot

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.

In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.

Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.

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