Château Ducru Beaucaillou, 2eme Cru Classé, St Julien, 2023
The 2023 Ducru Beaucaillou is a statuesque, vertical wine of scale and ambition. It is unashamedly modern, favouring a big, extracted style and what feels like a hands-on approach to winemaking. Initially quite introspective with notes of smoke, incense, minerals and earth backed up by dark, mineral, mulberry fruits. The core is a block of dark fruit - firm and structured, supported by some impressive, large-scale tannins. Very compact and powerful, there is some brightness to the fruit - contemporary and polished with plenty of detail. It will probably be stunning from bottle, but it might not appeal to those with ultra classical tastes..
critic reviews
Just love how this feels old school in the most contemporary way - meaning this has so much tannic power and architecture, alongside oyster shell salinity, a lot of palate presence and concentration, just a well defined, fabulous wine that you will be thrilled to sink into after a few more years in bottle. 41hl/h yield, 100% new oak, Bruno Borie owner, harvest September 8 to October 3.
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2023 Ducru-Beaucaillou opens with classic great Cabernet notes of blackcurrants, mulberries, and ripe plums leading to a perfume of lilacs, lavender, and pencil shavings with a touch of cardamom. The light to medium-bodied palate is very tightly wound and so, so elegant, with a firm backbone of grainy tannins and wonderful tension giving definition to the black and red berry layers, finishing long and fragrant. This is more structured than most Médoc wines this year and very impressive. The blend is 83% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot, with pH 3.70 and TPI 89.
The 2023 Ducru-Beaucaillou, matured in 100% new oak for a planned 18 months, has a less forceful bouquet than the 2022 last year and, consequently, shows more refinement and poise. The scents don't come barging out of the blocks, but they creep up on you. The palate is medium-bodied with a fresh entry. Showing moderate depth, it’s quite linear in style and grippy. A faint touch of bell pepper emerges on the classically styled finish that reminds me of some of the old vintages of Ducru-Beaucaillou. This is the strictest vintage I have encountered in some time.