| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > St Julien |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
The color is a healthy deep ruby/purple and the wine smells beautiful, exhibiting lots of floral, creme de cassis, licorice and graphite notes. Medium-bodied but slightly deficient in the mid-palate at present, it picks up speed and finishes with serious authority and power. This 2012 should be outstanding, but it is difficult to favorably compare the 2012 to the prodigious wines produced at Ducru in 2009 and 2010. The 2012 will require 4-6 years of cellaring and should drink well for 15-20 years.
The 2012 Ducru-Beaucaillou, which was matured in 95% new oak rather than 100%, was always a bit stubborn on the nose. Here, I feel it has opened marginally. Black olives and blood orange scents infuse the black fruit, just a hint of lavender develop with aeration. Very perfumed after 5-10 minutes. The palate is medium-bodied with smooth saturated tannins, fine acidity, quite intense and pastille-like. The finish feels monochromatic compared to the superior 2014, maybe the wood is just singing from a different hymn sheet. Quite exuberant, maybe even flashy, it does not quite deliver the complexity of a Ducru firing on all cylinders. Tasted at the Ducru Beaucaillou vertical at the château
Mesmerizing aromas of blackberries, licorice and mint. Wet stones too. Full-bodied and tight with super-refined and polished tannins that are pinpointed and elegant. It caresses your palate. Savory and salty on finish. Electric for the vintage. Better in 2018.
Deep garnet in color, the 2012 Ducru-Beaucaillou offers up expressive, exuberant scents of warm kirsch, black raspberries and wild blueberries with hints of sassafras, cedar chest, pencil lead and dried mint plus a waft of dried leaves. Medium-bodied, the palate has lovely freshness and a fair bit of chew, complementing the youthful black and red fruit layers, finishing on a lingering earthy note. 2020 - 2040
91% Cabernet Sauvignon! Bruno Borie had a vat that represented 0.75% of the total blend and Bruno claims you could taste the difference between whether it was included. Brilliant crimson. Just a hint of green leaves. A bit of meat extract. Great texture. Transparent. Really rather delicate - more so than other St-Juliens. Chapeau! Very distinctive. Fresh and delicate. Good interpretation of the vintage.
Ducru is on top form these days. Bruno Borie has made some very serious wines at Ducru in recent vintages with many vats previously destined for the grand vin now being used for the second label. From 2003 onwards production of the first wine has been reduced from 15,000-20,000 cs to 9,000-11,000 cs. There is now more second wine - La Croix de Beaucaillou - than there is Grand Vin. Bruno's policy is now to only select fruit from the heart of the Ducru vineyard, overlooking the estuary for the Grand Vin. Ducru is clearly back where it belongs at the top of the super-second league. This year the yield was only 30 hl/ha and the blend is a strapping 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot. A deep colour. Masses of black cassis fruit here. Hints of charcoal, cedary cigar box, and pain grillé. Sumptuous and deliciously smooth on the palate despite the impressive depth of blackcurrant and blackberry fruit. Bruno Borie describes the wine as "slinky". There is fresh acidity, spice and minerals and a long, precise finish. Very classy indeed and touching first growth quality.
This has an almost lavish feel, with layers of warmed fig, blackberry
paste and raspberry coulis lined with ganache, anise and
fruitcake flavors. Best from 2018 through 2027.
The nose is very cassis driven with an attractive freshness. It fills out in the middle with firm black cherry and ripe black plum. The freshness comes through again towards the back with cassis and black cherry giving complexity on the long finish. 2018-35.
"An English vintage that needed gentle handling" is how Bruno Borie describes 2012. If so,
it was all for the good, for this is a pretty, elegant, carefully defined Ducru, that's stylish and
well balanced, with leafy, cassis fruit and a touch of St Julien structure and tannin on the
finish. Comparatively forward in style.
Drink: 2020-35
Tasted blind at the Bordeaux 2012 Southwold tasting. The 2012 Ducru Beaucaillou was broody and stubborn on the nose: the fruit remaining off-stage while earthy, leathery notes take the limelight. The palate is medium-bodied with quite a tart entry, a keen line of acidity here that lends this energy, a sense of frisson. It settles down as it approaches the finish, gaining harmony all the time with a smooth, lightly spiced finish that lingers in the mouth. It needs time but it will repay you. Tasted January 2016.
The Grand Vin is a blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot, delivering 13% alcohol and a pH of 3.68 (IPT of 70.) The Merlot was picked between 3rd and 5th October and the Cabernet Sauvignon between 6th and 10th October. It is being aged in 95% new oak for 18 months. It has a very pure bouquet with small black cherries, blackcurrant with a pleasing mineral component and fine delineation. The palate is well balanced with fine tannins. It is not a powerful Ducru but there is good degree of finesse and freshness thanks to the earlier picked grapes, plus there is a pleasant spice/black pepper note right on the finish. This is one of the finest Saint Julien wines. Tasted April 2013.
A very clean and pretty Ducru with fine tannins and a mineral floral character. Full body, yet racy and delicious. Pure and very elegant. Juicy and enticing.
