Winemaker Notes
Blend: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Seriously savory and texturally complex this is a powerful wine that’s also very fresh. I love the long, crisp finish. If this had a little bit more concentration it would be sensational.
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Wine Enthusiast
Structured and dense, this is a dry, firm wine. Its superstructure of tannins doesn’t mark the ripe black-currant fruit that is developing. From one of the top vineyards in Haut-Médoc, this wine is likely to age well with its structure and fruit in place. Drink from 2024.
Editors' Choice -
Jeb Dunnuck
One of the standouts in my Cru Bourgeois tasting was the 2015 Château Beaumont. This charming, plump, medium-bodied beauty has real class as well as traditional notes of ripe cherries, flowers, tobacco leaf and underbrush. With moderate tannin and an already approachable style, enjoy it over the coming decade or so. It’s well worth seeking out.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted at the Cru Bourgeois annual tasting, the 2015 Beaumont has a more exotic bouquet than its peers with red cherries, wild strawberry and pressed flowers. It gains more and more refinement as it aerates. The palate is medium-bodied with a structured opening, the tannin enrobed with clean and pure blackberry and raspberry fruit, leading to a dense finish that just needs to attain more detail. Good potential.
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.
While it claims the same basic landscape as the Medoc—only every so slightly elevated above river level—the Haut Medoc is home to all of the magnificent chateaux of the Left Bank of Bordeaux, creating no lack of beautiful sites to see.
These chateaux, residing over the classed-growth cru in the villages of Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, St-Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe are within the Haut Medoc appellation. Though within the confines of these villages, any classed-growth chateaux will most certainly claim village or cru status on their wine labels.
Interestingly, some classed-growth cru of the Haut Medoc fall outside of these more famous villages and can certainly be a source of some of the best values in Bordeaux. Deep in color, and concentrated in ripe fruit and tannins, these wines (typically Cabernet Sauvignon-based) often prove the same aging potential of the village classed-growths. Among these, the highest ranked chateaux are Chateau La Lagune and Chateau Cantemerle.