chateau branaire ducru 4eme cru classe st julien

Château Branaire Ducru

Château Branaire Ducru, 4ème Cru Classé, St Julien, 2012

Name: Château Branaire Ducru, 4ème Cru Classé, St Julien
Brand: Château Branaire Ducru
Price: 684.67 GBP

90/100

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

91/100

The Wine Independent

91/100

Vinous

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2012
75cl
DP
£57.06
2012
12x75cl
DP
£684.67

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

This 4th Growth estate is capable of making exceptional St Julien; however, we wish it were a little more consistent. Patrick Maroteaux is one of the most charming propriétaire and his wines are usually sensibly priced. The 2012 is quite foursquare, with a bouquet of dark fruit and minerals. The palate is quite broad with aromas of hedgerow fruit, blackberry and sweet red fruits. It is a little bit simple, but okay.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of utmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

91/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

The 2012 Branaire-Ducru is medium to deep garnet colored. It opens with notes of dried Provence herbs, damp soil, and tapenade over a core of redcurrant jelly and plum preserves. The medium-bodied palate delivers youthful black fruits with a fine-grained texture and just enough freshness, finishing with an herbal lift.

drinking window 2022 - 2032

date of review 02/2023

91/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2012 Branaire-Ducru has a rather subdued bouquet compared to its peers and lacks the same joire de vivre as the 2012 Clos du Marquis. The palate is medium-bodied with a light grip on the entry, finely balanced with admirable purity. It suggests that the aromatics might be amidst a dumb phase because there is more brightness towards the finish. Tasted blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting.

drinking window 2022 - 2035

date of review 09/2022

90/100

Robert Parker,

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Deep ruby/purple, with sweet cranberry, mulberry and raspberry/blueberry fruit, this is always a distinctive St.-Julien and the 2012 has managed to avoid any of the hollowness or harsh tannins that can afflict some of the Medocs. It is elegant, well-made and an outstanding effort in this vintage. Drink it over the next 15 or more years.

drinking window 2015 - 2030

date of review 04/2015

product details

Specifications

Country:

France

Region:

Bordeaux

Appellation:

St Julien

Producer:

Château Branaire Ducru

style:

Red Wine

Grape Variety:

Cab Sauvignon Merlot

abv:

13%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.