Chateau Grand-Puy-Ducasse 2018
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Wilfred - Decanter
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
From a 19th-century winery that’s a prominent landmark on the Pauillac riverfront, this wine is dense with tannins and vivid with black fruits. The estate’s three parcels have given a rich wine, concentrated and dense while also having layers of dark fruits. Drink this promising wine from 2026.
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James Suckling
Dried currants, stewed blackberries, praline, dried herbs and pencil lead on the nose. Raw cocoa, too. It’s full-bodied with firm, ultra fine tannins. Structured with excellent intensity and focus. Very polished. Try from 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Very alluring, with a dark and winey core of cassis, steeped plum and blackberry preserve waiting to unfold fully while fine-grained alder, black tea, warm cast iron and licorice root notes form a prodigious frame. Long, dark, smoldering finish. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from 2025 through 2038.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Grand-Puy-Ducasse is deep garnet-purple in color and has quite a lot of cedar/oak on the nose to begin, opening out to a core of warm black and red currants, stewed plums and mulberries with touches of pencil shavings, fried herbs, lavender and tapenade. Medium to full-bodied, the palate gives a firm, grainy frame with some chew from the oak and fresh, crunchy red and black fruit, finishing savory.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Château Grand-Puy Ducasse is packed and lavish from start to finish, with an almost New World spin. TASTING NOTES: This wine excels with bold and up-front aromas and flavors of black fruit and oak. Enjoy it with a thick slice of prime rib. (Tasted: June 25, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
A pretty intense interpretation of the vintage, with concentrated fruits and slightly bitter overtones. There are black fruits here, and tannins, giving Pauillac character. Not letting a lot of light out right now - demands patience. Drinking Window 2026 - 2038
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The estate's true "inventor" was Pierre Ducasse, a lawyer who was passionately interested in wine. He bought land in the city of Pauillac and a part of the "bordieu de Grand-Puy", which spread out over three parishes (Pauillac, Saint Lambert and Beycheville). Pierre Ducasse's son built the current chateau on the site of his ancestors' house in the early 19th century.
This chateau is highly unusual in that it is located in the heart of Pauillac. Included in the famous 1855 classification, and benefiting from the rich diversity of some of the finest vineyard land in Pauillac, Grand-Puy Ducasse is one of the leaders of this appellation. This great wine is made with the utmost care and the most up-to-date technological methods.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.