Wine Review: Chateau Grand Puy Ducasse Pauillac 2021

In today’s Wine-Searcher tasting, our Wine Director, David Allen MW, tastes a 5th Growth wine from Pauillac. He is looking at this as part of a set of samples of the 2021 vintage he has been sent by the Oenolabs consultancy. David feels that while not a great vintage, the 2021s have been rather unfairly written off as a poor vintage when in fact – at the right price – they offer some enjoyable drinking.

Château Grand-Puy Ducasse is a classed Growth estate in Pauillac. Under the name Artigues Arnaud, it was rated as a Fifth Growth in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855.

The Grand Vin is a Bordeaux-blend of comprising Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot complimented by Cabernet Franc. Grapes are hand-harvested and selections take place both in the vineyard and on arrival at the winery. It is fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, and is aged for 18-24 months in French oak barrels with a proportion of new wood.

A second wine, Prélude à Grand-Puy Ducasse, is made from younger vines. This is aged for around the same duration as the Grand Vin but with only 10 to 15-percent new oak.

The estate has 99 acres (40ha) under vine that is divided into three distinct plots. These parcels border Mouton, Lafite and Pontet-Canet to the north, and cover part of the shallow hill called Grand Puy and lie on the Saint Lambert plateau.

The vineyard plantings are around 62 percent Cabernet Sauvignon on silica and gravel soils, and 38 percent Merlot on sandy gravel soils.

To learn more about this wine, its pricing and where to find it follow this link to the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/grand+puy+ducasse+pauillac+medoc+bordeaux+france/2021

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hello there today I’m taking a look at a fifth growth from Pak so we’re in Bordeaux and this is gr ducas so it’s a class growth in the fifth ranking of the the class growths of the medog so this is a chatau whose history goes back to 1675 when somebody called um anod duas buys what is described as a modest house on the waterfront in poak in little town about halfway up the medok with the the giron Esty there right to its front I don’t think most of us would think of it as modest but it it’s not quite the grand chatau that that many would expect from a a top estate and Grump did cast is unusual in that its its house at shatow is separated from The Vineyards now most of the estate was built up by arod son son Pierre who who actually managed to buy land in three communes from within what is now the pakon so they have land in Pak they have land in San and they have Bland in San lamb so gr ducas claim that they’re the only estate to actually have vines in all the different ter of Pak so to the north they have Vineyards that neighbor Estates such as lefit and muton in the central section there’s a a low Hill the gromi hill on which they have quite a lot of their Merlo and some leav and Petty aough because the soils there a limestone subsoil that suits them and then to the South some of their other vines on the plane there border on close to to San julen and and actually their Vineyards are close to those of of Pichon Baron so there’s quite a spectrum and the plantings are about 6040 cabinet so on to Merlo another interesting thing to note about gr du is that in the 1820s they actually were one of the first Estates to build their own cellers so for a long period period of decades they were pretty much the only people in this part of the medok making wine in their own property in 1855 the classification of of the medok and so turns take place and the shadow is classified as a fifth growth it’s subsequently renamed R duas it goes through quite a number of of owners including at one stage the the sudo family from so turn but in 2004 it’s bought by CA gron crew while the viticulture arm of the French Bank credit Agri Co they’ve actually been able to continue investment to Ure that the the estate is is up to date with its technology for instance they continued work that was started in the ’90s where The Vineyards had been reorganized so that that the warmest deep deepest gravels were where the cabinet sovon was growing and that Merlo was replanted to to those Vineyards where there was there was more sand in the soils and the result of that reorganization they’ve ended up with slightly more cabinet 7 being planted and the quality of that cabinet s being higher other Investments have seen them work towards being organically certified seen them rebuilding the cellers and the barrel Hall which is a ongoing Enterprise which is just about finished now in 2024 and as part of this initially when CA gron crew purchased the property they they brought in dny dubu who at that stage was the professor of onology in bordeau University to consult on the wine making subsequently in 2013 they employed Uber deua the owner of chatow Angelus and his Consulting firm to oversee the production of the wine and throughout this period there’s been a perceived increase in quality here part of the investment that was seen for instance was in Optical sorting machines and those I believe have been purchased and used as standard now so in a vintage like 2021 when ripness could be an issue those are quite useful tools to have in the winery now everything of course is handpicked I believe the the blend for uh 2021 was pretty much along the lines of of the vineyard so the 62% of cabinet seron in this and 38% of Merlo one of the things that did happen with 2021 being a less intense vintage in terms of fruit ripness was that they’ve only used 30% of new Oak for aging and that the wine would have aged French Oak berri 225 L French Oak bars for 18 months but as I say with with less than a third of that of that Oak being us so just toning down the oak influence a little for the Vintage fermentation in general takes place in stainless steel tanks although I believe they have been working with some cement egg fermenters as well but generally the the wine undergoes its malolactic conversion in tank as well although a small proportion may do that in Barrel just to add a little bit of softness and roundness to the wine so yes I I had a quick look at the wine Searcher aggregated score for this wine and and it gets given an 88 which is not a bad score I guess but I’m intrigued to see whether perhaps people have been a little bit harsh on it so let’s have a look at the wine shall we first thing to say there’s actually a really quite nice depth of color there it’s not opaque I can see the the stem of the glass through through the white but there’s still quite a vibrant purple red color it’s keeping that well to the rim the wine is labeled as having 13% alcohol I believe it maybe 12.8 and it’s not particularly showing heavy tears on the glass it’s barely showing any to be honest at this stage so let’s see what we think of the Aromas shall we the really attractive lifted red plum perfume it really is quite vibrant there seems to be a sort of slightly chalky note to it as well but there is just such lovely lifted vivacity I’m really quite impressed by that so let’s see what you make of the taste on the palette initially there’s plentiful fresh acidity and that’s really bringing that sort of juicy plum nature of the fruit that we saw on the Aromas onto the palette it’s mouthwatering being plums there’s that sort of velvety Plum skin sort of texture but actually there’s a bit more depth to it than that there’s a real of velvetiness really asserting itself there are chocolatey notes and those are working really nicely in harmony there’s quite a richness here this we’re not just talking about juicy light red plums we’re talking about richer darker notes there and we’re just starting to see with the freshness a little bit of slightly leafy ciss Note coming through there as well which actually would be more what I’d be expecting from Pac and particularly from a wine that’s predominantly cabinet s but I’m having to look for it there a bit same time the texture and the richness of the wine is really quite enjoyable and that’s coming from the the fruit remember the the alcohol here is only 133% and it’s you maybe adding to the roundness a little bit I’m not particularly seeing strong Cedar notes there’s a fine grainy nature to the tannins and then maybe just a little tiny Touch of vanilla helping to round out the the back pallette there but the oak is is really beautifully harmonized with the fruit and there is this sort of the grip but there’s a a suppleness to the tannins and the freshness is allowing some fresh red fruit to to last quite nicely on the tongue I think our aggregated score at 88 is perhaps being a little tough on this looking at that aggregation that is of scores between 87 and 92 and I think I’m closer to the higher range the the certainly up to 90 maybe even 91 on this I think it’s a wine with more depth I expected it’s got a nice structure and certainly it’s got good freshness 2021 is unlikely to be a vintage that’s going to wage for a long time doesn’t have the guts and the depth that it’ll need for that this has got good structure good acidity and a nice open vivacious fruit that I I think we will see this world through for the next 10 years or so and give some really enjoyable drinking so thank you very much for joining us I do hope you’ve enjoyed the tasting if you have do please press the like button if you’d like to watch more tastings best answer would be to subscribe to our Channel it’d be fantastic to have your support I will leave a link to the wine Searcher website page for 2021 Grandy dcast in the notes below so that you can follow that and find out more about pricing availability any information we have about the wine its price history and and all sorts of elements such as that if you’ve got any comments please leave those in the box below we would love to hear what you think about the the wines we’re looking at the tastings we’re doing or anything else that relates that if you have friends you think might like to watch the video do please pass it on to them it’ be fantastic if you could afford it but most importantly if you have some time in the near future to come and join us for some more tastings let’s hope we’ll see you again then thanks again bye for now