Winemaker Notes
Blend: 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This estate, whose chateau is on the Gironde estuary front in Pauillac, is a solid, tannic wine. Its Cabernet Sauvignon brings out black-currant fruits and shows fine potential. It is a wine for aging, drink from 2027.
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James Suckling
Fresh and precise nose showing red currants, subtle chili chocolate, mineral and a drizzle of white pepper. More elegant and refined than being dense and compact. Tannins are still firm and vertical on the medium-bodied palate with a subtle finish of very good length.
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Vinous
The 2021 Grand-Puy Ducasse turned out well. Dark red cherry, scorched earth, plum, leather, tobacco and dried herbs stain the palate with intensity. This is an especially savory vintage for Grand-Puy Ducasse. The 2021 is marked by strong Cabernet Sauvignon savoriness and firm tannins that need to soften. Tasted two times. –Antonio Galloni
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Decanter
Smooth and silky, with high acidity, quite lean and straight, all in one line - a little light - very mineral and taught - lots of tenison driving this wine from start to finish with clear lines of liquorice, menthol, dark chocolate, flint and wet stone. It's missing a bit more density and vibrancy but I do like the dried herbs and cola, liquorice stoniness. I had high expectations for this based on my Primeurs tasting but it didn't quite meet them.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Deep ruby/purple-hued, the 2021 Château Grand-Puy Ducasse is based on 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38% Merlot that spent 18 months in just 30% new oak. It's an outstanding effort that has the more medium-bodied, firmer style of the vintage as well as solid red and black fruits supported by cedary herbs, graphite, and tobacco that develop with time in the glass. I like its mid-palate depth, it has beautiful purity and enough tannins to warrant 2-4 years of bottle age, and it should evolve gracefully over the following decade.
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Wine Spectator
Taut, but more sleek than trim, with a bright iron spine and good damson plum and black cherry notes that race along, while light savory and tobacco accents flitter in the background. A solid, understated effort.
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.