Beaulieu Vineyard Napa Valley Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon 2015

97+/100 - The flagship is the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve, a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Merlot, and 3% each of Petit Verdot and Malbec aged in 90% new French oak. Deep purple-colored, with a brilliant bouquet of crème de cassis, blueberries, graphite, and smoked herbs, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, terrific purity, and building tannins, which become even more apparent with extended air time (I followed this bottle for multiple days). This is the real deal and count me impressed. It's approachable today thanks to its purity and balance, but given its old-school, classic feel, I've no doubt it's going to evolve for 2-3 decades. - Jeb Dunnuck

96/100 - A blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec and 4% Merlot, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve Georges de Latour was aged for 22 months in French oak barrels, 90% new. Deep garnet-purple colored, it offers a profound nose of baked blackberries, Black Forest cake, Christmas pudding and Chinese five spice with hints of rose hip tea, cedar chest and mincemeat pie. Full-bodied, super rich and wonderfully concentrated, the palate provides a rock-solid frame of grainy tannins, finishing long and spicy. At 15% alcohol, it is a beautifully rich, ripe, opulent expression with bags of compelling freshness to offset all that decadence. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate 

95/100 - Bright, full medium ruby. Reticent nose currently dominated by aromas of dark chocolate, rum raisin, spices, licorice and graphite minerality, with its dark fruits in the deep background at present. Densely packed and hugely concentrated owing to the low crop level of 2015, but already displaying compelling sweetness. This is quite inexpressive, flavor-wise, in the middle palate but already boasts a three-dimensional texture and outstanding depth. This extremely youthful wine boasts a compellingly long, echoing finish featuring ripe, building tannins--more obvious than those of the 2016 today--and a brooding medicinal note of dark chocolate. This, too, is an infant today. Production of the Georges de Latour has been lower in recent years than previously, with this vintage the lowest of all at just 6,200 cases. - Stephen Tanzer, Vinous 

98/100 - A complex red with blackcurrants, forest floor and mint. Eucalyptus, too. Love the aromas. Full body with ripe tannins that roll on the palate. Very harmonious and precise. Needs four to five years to come together, but already a joy to taste. - James Suckling