Beautiful blue fruits, tobacco, damp earth, and floral notes all emerge from the 2019 Château Branaire-Ducru. It's medium to full-bodied, flawlessly balanced, has silky tannins, and shows the quality of the vintage perfectly. A blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, it will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and cruise for two decades or more. It reminds me of the 2009.

The 2019 Branaire-Ducru is rich, layered and sumptuous. Black cherry, licorice, spice, leather tobacco and tar build effortlessly in the glass. The 2019 impresses with its density and pure power, which makes it perhaps atypical for Branaire by its historic standards, but it may be the direction the château seems to be headed in. The aromatics are a bit closed right now, but time in bottle should help take care of that.