CHÂTEAU DUCRU BEAUCAILLOU

85 Cabernet Sauvignon, 15 Merlot: 100% new oak – matured for 18 months: 13% alc: 3.7 pH: 89 IPT: Harvested from 8 September - 3 October It was fabulous to see Bruno Borie up and about after all manner of new joints have been fitted – he is Saint-Julien’s Bionic Man. It was even more exciting to walk through the portfolio at a leisurely pace with Tracey Dobbin MW, the font of all Ducru knowledge and one of the most open and interesting people I met up with on my tour. In common with other estates, bud break was spot-on, and frost barely troubled the scorers, with only mild issues on the plateau. Flowering was super-abundant (an expression I heard a few times). They left 12 buds per plant and then ended up with 5-8, which was a 50% reduction in the crop. It was costly but critical, and if you cast your eyes down the page, it proved well worth it, too! Interestingly, mildew was less of a problem here than expected. Tracey described this as “a fight that was always winnable” because of lessons learned in 2021. They brought up 50 people from the harvesting team, nice and early, and they dropped fruit and carried out a trie sanitaire: removing partial bunches, cleaning and a little leaf thinning. Tracey noted that cover crops worked nicely, and ‘spot-captures’, which send spores off to a lab coupled with mini-weather-station data, give them a lot of data so they can be incredibly accurate with their treatments. Yields remained healthy, and with nicely aerated canopies, the August heatwave had little effect, but the hot temperatures in early September made everything a little more unpredictable. They started harvesting Merlot on the 8th of September, and the plateau was finished in a couple of days. The rains came on the 21st and 22nd of September, but it was much less than predicted. With no sign of botrytis, they gambled and harvested later despite a slight dilution from around 130 to 110g; they carried out a small amount of bleeding and maintained spectacular fruit quality. Selection-wise, everything was hand-harvested and hand-sorted, and every berry went through a trie optique (even on Madame). The installation of smaller conical-shaped cuves gives rich but soft tannins, and there, a vast collection of seriously intense wines, was made at this property. What strikes me so clearly about this wine is that all these efforts and attention to detail are evident in the glass. Ducru is as fit and supple as I have ever seen it. It is not a big wine but a street dancer: elegant, immensely strong, agile, decorous, and mesmerising. On the surface, this finely tuned Cabernet is the model of decorum, but the explosive perfume and palate crackle with visceral energy and the tasting experience from start to finish minutes later is extraordinarily involving. As the wine moves towards you, you must react, push as it pulls you, and activate the taste buds in differing sequences to onboard all the information held within this cache of flavour. Behind the surface notes, there is a discreet but unrelenting crackle of energy, dark purple, intense, cool, and thrilling. This wine is nothing short of a contemporary version of a great wine from the past. I kept seeing similarities between some shapes and colours that the phenomenal 1961 vintage has left on my flavour memory, but this wine could never have been made 60 years ago. It is a wine of its time, and it is entirely captivating. 19.5+/20 Rating: 19.5+ Matthew Jukes www.matthewjukes.com (May 2024)

The 2023 Ducru-Beaucaillou is a heady, sumptuous Saint-Julien. The aromatics alone are captivating. Truffle, rose petal, blood orange, pomegranate, spice and menthol build in a creamy, lavish Ducru. The 2023 is a classic Bruno Borie wine that emphasizes textural opulence. Time in the glass brings out gorgeous floral and spice-driven top notes. The balance of opulence and vibrancy is compelling. Drinking range: 2033 - 2063 Rating: 95-97 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (May 2024)

The grand vin from Bruno Borie and team is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 15% Merlot. A fairly remarkable hue in the glass, glossy and dense. The nose is intense, focused, very fragrant, almost Margaux-like (the Palmer interpretation of Margaux, anyway) with savoury black fruits, black olive and currant, but also very confident floral expression, with notes of black violets and rose petals, infused with dark chocolate. This translates into a dense but sinewy and lithe palate, with a very dark and floral flavour profile, a very glossy and fine texture, and a tightly knit but dense wrapping of dark tannins, which hold the middle and finish in a fairly firm grip. A top left bank wine, with the intense tannic structure that marks some of the best Cabernet wines of this vintage. An impressive composition, but one that I sense will need much time in barrel and bottle before it is approachable. An iron fist in a floral-velvet glove, and perhaps a wine for your children. The alcohol level is about 13%. Rating: 94-96 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2024)