This is another of the up and coming estates of St Emilion which should join the ranks of the very top echelon of the appellation in fairly short order. The vineyards are wonderfully situated on the limestone plateau and the Becots appear to be willing to invest whatever it takes to build Beau-Sejour-Becot into one of the most renowned names of St Emilion. This 2008 vintage is another strong effort and one which I feel may well be up rated by Robert Parker over the next year or two. The wine displays a lovely perfume, full bodied flavours which coat the palate, but with a wonderful freshness, I’m not certain why this is, it was a long cool summer, but they harvested in late October and the alcohol is 14% so they achieved full ripeness, perhaps it’s just this vintage, anyway, it possesses huge richness and incredible tannin levels, but they’re quite silky already. My feeling is this will eventually come in with a mid 90s score once it’s had a little time to strut its stuff. Ultimately I think this has the potential to become a blockbuster even surpassing both 2000 and 2005 wines.

I was totally seduced by the 2008 Chateau D’Issan which brought to mind images of femininity and Audrey Hepburn, and found many of the same tones in the second wine. This beautifully elegant second wine, is a precise, well-delineated 2008 displays a dense ruby/purple colour as well as a sweet perfume of spring flowers, blue and black fruits, and subtle graphite and earth. Medium to full-bodied with a layered, expansive mouthfeel, impressive purity, and a long finish with no hint of aggressiveness, this effort should be at its peak in 2-3 years, and evolve for 10-15 years.

88-90+ points Robert Parker - The Wine Advocate April 2010
Another exclusivity of negociant Jeffrey Davies, this wine seems built to evolve for up to a decade or more. A blend of 43% Merlot, a whopping 35% Petit Verdot, and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon that all tip the scales at 14% natural alcohol, the result is a wine with loads of structure that seems more backward than many of its peers, especially at this price point, but displays an impressive concentration of black currant and black cherry fruit with some licorice and spicy oak. This is a seriously endowed wine that needs to shed some tannin, but it is all there. Give it a year or so of bottle age and drink it over the following decade. (Tasted once.)

2008 Ducru Beaucaillou
Is this the greatest Ducru Beaucaillou ever made, potentially yes! This is very dense in colour and with a massive smorgasboard of aromas, floral, cassis, black cherry, blackcurrant, charcoal, coffee, chocolate and Asian spices. Full bodied with massive layers of fruit and richness that builds on the palate, this is without doubt a monumental wine, which is more sculptured than structured. There is tremendous definition of fruit but my feeling is it needs to firm up a bit, for the moment it has great richness and is well focused with wonderful sweetness of ripe fruit, if the hidden tannins start to play a part this will undoubtedly become the greatest ever easily surpassing 61, 82 and 2005. 

2007 Ducru Beaucaillou
Deep colour, offering subtle aromas of smoky wood, fresh herbs and dark fruits, full bodied, especially for the vintage, there's a solid core of fruit with soft silky tannins which fill the mouth, this is a very well crafted wine, very highly polished and I think will show well when bottled. Tasted June 2009.

Shows a lovely, intense, deep black colour with a very fruity, pure nose where I found touches of tar and liquorice. This wine offers a slow tannic evolution, progressing through to very fruity, with loads of mineral ,ends on a more fruit forward note, perhaps needs to gain a little weight.
 

Giscours has been trying to drag itself up by its bootstraps for more than a decade; I think it has just managed to complete the task. I have never tasted a better wine from this estate, gorgeous aromas of ripe fresh fruit, sweet fresh earth, smoke and mineral. The palate is concentrated with a solid core of beautifully ripe fruit, full and fine tannins, this is both sexy and sumptuously built, precise, age worthy, and should be a bargain given its un-elevated position which has not matched its pedigree for millennia.

Lovely intense colour without being overworked, the nose is ripe and quite fine, the plate is more velvety than usual, and it develops more aromatics in the mouth, there are no tough edges here, the tannins are sweet and it finishes with some lovely dark fruit and coffee flavours.

Lagrange is getting better and better in recent years, ruby/purple, with very nice aromatics of crushed blackberry and mineral, full bodied, powerful and opulent on the palate, this glides with ease, somehow they have managed to check the tannin levels, this is a superior wine made in the modern style. 

A very impressive performance for Lagrange this year, saturated purple, with obvious notes of melted liquorice, crème de cassis, saddle leather and smoky new oak, the palate is full bodied and glorious, layered, complex and chewy, quite high in tannin, decidedly large boned, but impressively long and dense, well balanced if a little nervy right now, this has enormous potential and a most reasonable price.

 

Chateau Lascombes is certainly one of the Bordeaux producers which has benefitted greatly by the increased prices, enabling more money to be spent at the winery, and qualitively speaking, the wines have improved dramatically since the millennium. The 2008 is inky black in colour, with a super perfume of charcoal, barbeque roast, blackberry, and floral notes. Medium to full body, silky but noticeable tannins, a layered mouthfeel and a surprisingly long finish.