Château Duhart-Milon 2024

Critic scores

• James Suckling95
• Vinous92-94
• Wine Advocate90-93
• Decanter93

The 2024 vintage in Pauillac

Vintage benchmark: 87/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A rainy spring and a difficult flowering reduced the crop; the dry October saved fine, light, easy-drinking wines.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pauillac. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

Beautiful intense purple color. The nose opens with deep aromas of ripe black fruits - blackberry, plum - accompanied by nuances of graphite, sweet pepper and cigar box. On the palate, the wine is structured, carried by an assertive but elegant tannic structure. The Cabernet Sauvignon expresses itself with directness and power, while the Merlot brings roundness and suppleness. Lingering, straight, saline and slightly spicy finish. A precise and assertive Duhart-Milon, worthy of the Pauillac classified growth.

Blend of the 2024 vintage

Figures from the 2024 sheet

• 260,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Château Duhart-Milon is vinified using traditional Bordeaux winemaking methods. The grapes are subjected to meticulous sorting then, depending on their plot of origin, they are placed in cement or stainless steel vats for alcoholic fermentation. Light pump-over is carried out during fermentation to optimize extraction. The total maceration time is approximately 20 days.

Ageing

Following the malolactic fermentation process, the wines are barreled into French oak barrels manufactured by the Tonnellerie des Domaines in Pauillac. The barrels are subject to an individual tasting carried out in December for a strict selection of the great wine. Following this selection, the wine is blended then put into oak barrels (50% new oak).

Terroir

The vineyard of Château Duhart-Milon lies almost as a single block on the western side of Château Lafite Rothschild, on the Milon slope that extends the Carruades plateau of Lafite. The Château Duhart-Milon estate comprises 76 ha of vines. The soils are fine gravels mixed with aeolian sands over a subsoil of Tertiary limestone. Strict control of yields, hand harvesting and a great deal of work carried out by hand throughout the year.