What a vintage for Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. The Grand Vin has extraordinary depth in 2019. It is a giant in terms of extract and structure. The fruit is so compelling and the tannins so supple, it must surely vie to be amongst one of the wines of the vintage, along with that other left bank stunner Pichon Lalande [more on that wine shortly]. This Ducru is clearly a legendary wine in the making. It feels more evidently tannic than the other potential ‘hundred pointers’ in 2019 but what a wine. It’s a fitting tribute for the 300^th anniversary vintage here [yep Ducru has been around since 1720]. La Croix de Beaucaillou looks really good in 2019 too. It is wonderfully plush and refined. There are also some additions to Bruno Borie’s line up here with the release of St Julien Le Petit Ducru [effectively replacing Lalande Borie] and a new Haut-Médoc, Madame de Beaucaillou, both of which also impressed.

Bruno Borie has presided over a bevy of excellent wines from the Ducru stable in 2015. All show vivacious beauty this year. The fruit tones are seductive and delicious. Across the board the wines show harmony and balance. It kick’s off with a vibrant Château Lalande-Borie, followed by a gloriously perfumed La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou. The Château Ducru-Beaucaillou grand vin looks exceptional. This is an almost entirely Cabernet Sauvignon blend [95%] and shows just how voluptuous this variety can be in the right hands, from the right terroir, in the right year. 2015 is definitely an exciting vintage here, and not a million miles from the great successes of 2009 and 2010.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise given the man, but I’ve just discovered [having got around to reading them] that Bruno Borie, the force behind Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, writes wonderfully playful vintage reports. Usually you reach for these when you’ve forgotten your producer chats, or not understood their French, but these Borie-penned documents are worth seeking out in themselves. On his 2013 vintage report, I’m 100 points [as James Suckling might say]. Borie describes how the grape clusters yearned for a man `with a slow hand,’ and ‘an easy touch,’ in the manner of Pointer Sisters [Slow Hand, 1981] . Go Bruno, go! But did the grapes get lasting satisfaction in 2013?