Chateau Beychevelle 2012

Professional Ratings

• 95 Wine Enthusiast
  This is a smooth, rich wine that's intensely concentrated and packed with great black-currant fruits. The wine has weight and a sense of structure to support the great fruitiness.
  Barrel Sample: 93-95 Points
• 92 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The grand vin, the 2012 Beychevelle, is one of the stars of St.-Julien. Opaque purple, with beautiful crème de cassis notes, the wine has floral underpinnings, sweet tannin and a nice layered, multi-dimensional mouthfeel. This is elegant and powerful, rich and intense, but light on its feet. This is a great Beychevelle and certainly seems to exceed the vintage’s character and expectations. Give it 4-6 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 25-30 years.
  Rating: 92+
• 92 James Suckling
  This shows an outstanding density of fruit with currant, blueberry and raspberry character. Full-bodied, compressed and tight. Fine tannins. Better in 2017.
• 90 Wine Spectator
  Very solid, with a bramble-lined core of blackberry, blueberry and raspberry fruit, backed by anise and singed wood spice notes. A bolt of graphite pins the finish down. Best from 2016 through 2024.
• 90 Decanter
  2012 was a relatively cool vintage but this remains lovely and open on the nose. There's a good density to the black fruit, mixed through with charcoal and cedar notes. Still tight on the finish but a good quality wine, with appealingly supple tannins through the mid-palate and it should be ready to drink before both the 2011 and the 2010 vintages. The gravel soils of Château Beychevelle, alongside the thermal effect of the river, often give it one week difference of ripening compared to neighbouring estates further to the west of the appellation, and this really helped in 2012. This was the first year with technical director Romain Ducolomb, who came from Château Clinet, although he is originally from Burgundy and has worked both in Burgundy and Napa along the way. 4% Cabernet Franc makes up the blend.