2015 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, St Julien, Bordeaux

2015 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, St Julien, Bordeaux

Product: 20158008844
Prices start from £860.00 per case Buying options
2015 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, St Julien, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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6 x 75cl bottle
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Description

Tasting at Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou is always a pleasant experience and Bruno Borie was on typically enigmatic form when we arrived to taste the 2015. Really pure, clean and complex, the wine is sophisticated, with supple tannins and gorgeous, fat, juicy fruit. It is a wonderful wine. Lots of fat dark fruit appears on the palate, plums and cherries dominating, followed by a spicy, creamy finish.

The Super Seconds have performed very well in 2015 and the ripeness of this wine is certainly very pleasing. Expressive, poised, elegant and charming. Delicious, this will certainly reward time in the cellar.

Blend: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot

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Critics reviews

Burghound94/100
A ripe but cool and highly complex nose of moderately wooded aromas of violets, cassis, black berry and anise hints. The superbly rich and velvety broad-shouldered flavors possess outstanding size, weight and mid-palate concentration that coats the palate with dry extract and enrobes the firm tannic spine to the point where it is more of a background element than usual. There is excellent energy and precision to the dusty, pure and driving finish. This well-balanced effort should require between 15 and 18 years of cellar time to be at its best.

Drink 2025+

Burghound (Jan 2013) Read more
Wine Advocate97/100
Composed of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Ducru-Beaucaillou is provocatively and profoundly scented of chocolate-covered cherries, fresh black currants, crushed blueberries and licorice with touches of cigar box, roses and violets plus hints of black pepper and tapenade. Medium to full-bodied, rich and sultry with tons of seductive layers and firm, wonderfully velvety tannins, it has a very long, multilayered finish.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 21/02/2018 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW17.5/20
Very deep. Lifted and fresh. Very correct and unforced. Very sweet. Only just not too sweet… Transparent. Very expressive. Lively and fresh but a bit sinewy.
Drink 2023-2036
Jancis Robinson - jancisrobinson.com - Apr 2016 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW17/20
Dark crimson. Muted nose. Vaguely meaty nose then very flattering soft fruit on the palate. A pleasurable Clos Vougeot that has quite a bit of zesty dry tannin on the finish. Relatively delicate.

Drink 2016-2026

Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com (Oct 2011) Read more
James Suckling95-96/100
A dense and compressed red with loads of blackberry and blueberry character. Fresh wet vineyard soil. Some mushroom too. Full and very tannic yet polished and very refined. Super balance and depth.
James Suckling - jamessuckling.com - Apr 2016
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Decanter94/100
Mellow, refined, expressive cherry and raspberry fruits dominate the aromas of this clear, bright red burgundy. It’s firm, thrusting and pungent on the palate; the cascading acidity is more palpable at this stage than the quietly supportive tannins. Energetic, sappy and forceful, right the way through the finish. Deft and poised.

Andrew Jefford, Decanter (Apr 2016) Read more

About this WINE

Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou

Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou

Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is a St-Julien property that today is one of the leading Super Seconds. It is owned by the Borie family and is situated in the south-east of the St-Julien appellation. Ducru-Beaucaillou's 50 hectares of vineyards (Cabernet Sauvignon 65%, Merlot 25%, Cabernet Franc 5% and Petit Verdot 5%) lie on deep, large-stone gravel beds enriched with alluvial soil deposits and with a high clay content. The wines are matured in oak barriques (50-60% new) for 18 months.

For many, Ducru-Beaucaillou is the quintessential St-Julien - deep-coloured, powerful, ripe, exquisitely well-balanced and perfectly harmonious. It requires a minimum of 10 years of bottle ageing before it should be approached and the best vintages will continue improving for many more years. Ducru-Beaucaillou is classified as a 2ème Cru Classé.

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St Julien

St Julien

St Julien is the smallest of the "Big Four" Médoc communes. Although, without any First Growths, St Julien is recognised to be the most consistent of the main communes, with several châteaux turning out impressive wines year after year. 

St Julien itself is much more of a village than Pauillac and almost all of the notable properties lie to its south. Its most northerly château is Ch. Léoville Las Cases (whose vineyards actually adjoin those of Latour in Pauillac) but,  further south, suitable vineyard land gives way to arable farming and livestock until the Margaux appellation is reached.  

The soil is gravelly and finer than that of Pauillac, and without the iron content which gives Pauillac its stature. The homogeneous soils in the vineyards (which extend over a relatively small area of just over 700 hectares) give the commune a unified character.

The wines can be assessed as much by texture as flavour, and there is a sleek, wholesome character to the best. Elegance, harmony and perfect balance and weight, with hints of cassis and cedar, are what epitomise classic St Julien wines. At their very best they combine Margaux’s elegance and refinement with Pauillac’s power and substance.

Ch. Léoville Las Cases produces arguably the most sought-after St Julien, and in any reassessment of the 1855 Classification it would almost certainly warrant being elevated to First Growth status.

Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Léoville Las CasesCh.Léoville Barton, Ch Léoville Poyferré, Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou, Ch Langoa Barton, Ch Gruaud Larose, Ch. Branaire-Ducru, Ch. Beychevelle

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Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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