Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou Collectors Bordeaux Tasting

 

"Never understood a single word he said but I helped him drink his wine…and he always had some mighty fine wine." -- 3 Dog Night

 

And I know our "Wine Drinking People" have a lot of fine wines in their cellar – that is what our "Collector Series" wine tastings are all about…Sharing the wealth!!

 

 

 

We are big fans of Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou so when I heard that Cathleen Burke-Visscher was in town I said it's time for a Collectors series tasting with one of the great Chateau of Bordeaux.  I knew that we had a lot of Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou collectors out there that would love to bring a bottle out of their cellar to share with our group on Thursday, October 20th.

 

 

 

Our collector series tasting event is where we ask you "Wine Drinking People", to come up with some wine from your wine collection to add to the party in exchange for your ticket to the event.  That's correct the collector series tasting portion of the event is FREE, all it will cost you is one bottle of Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou from your cellar!!  Don't sweat it if you don't have one we have a few bottles in our collection that are available to purchase for this event on this offering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chateau Ducru Collectors Series Bordeaux Wine Tasting

with Special Guest Cathleen Burke-Visscher

Thursday October 20th

7:30pm

 

 

 

Let me explain further- this is a two-part event:

 

 

 

Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou Collectors Tasting Part 1

 

The first part of the evening begins at 7:30pm, this is where we will be tasting through a selection of new releases from the Chateau that are listed below.  This tasting will take place at the bar and we will serve a selection of cheese and charcuterie to accompany these wines as our guests arrive.

 

 

2016 CHATEAU LALANDE BORIE ST JULIEN

Price: $55.50    Your Price: $48.84       Quantity in Stock: 10

 

(93 Points) Vivid and racy cassis, blueberry puree and damson plum coulis flavors show serious cut and drive, while mouthwatering bramble and sweet tobacco notes fill in. Best from 2023 through 2036.  Wine Spectator

 

 

 

 

2019 MADAME DE BEAUCAILLOU HAUT MEDOC

Price: $34.50    Your Price: $30.36       Quantity in Stock: 12

 

Color bright, deep, purple. Very charming and refined nose. Fresh, fruity, underpinned by a note of French oak, Morello cherry jam, violet. Spicy notes on aeration. Clean attack, silky tannins. A pleasurable wine, delicious, subtle and seductive. Beautiful harmony and elegant femininity.

 

 

2018 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou Le Petit Ducru St. Julien

Price: $48.50    Your Price: $42.68       Quantity in Stock: 6

 

(90 Points) A newcomer to the Ducru-Beaucaillou stable, Le Petit Ducru wine was formerly called Lalande-Borie. It is essentially a third wine, coming from part of the vineyard of Ducru-Beaucaillou. The 2018 Le Petit Ducru is a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was aged for 12 months in barrel, in one-third new oak. It has an alcohol of 14.5%. Deep garnet-purple colored, it leaps from the glass with wonderfully pure scents of black and red currants, black raspberries and mulberries plus suggestions of tobacco leaf, bay leaves and fertile loam. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers mouth-filling juicy black fruits flavors with soft tannin's and just enough freshness, finishing with an herbal lift.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

2019 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou Le Petit Ducru St. Julien

Price : $52.50   Sale $46.20

 

(90 Points) Notes of blackberries, plums, pencil shavings and violets introduce the 2019 Le Petit Ducru, a medium to full-bodied, velvety and sensual wine that's lively and concentrated, its ample core of fruit largely concealing an abundance of ripe, powdery tannin. It's a Merlot-based blend that includes declassified lots of La Croix and Ducru-Beaucaillou itself. Best after 2021.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

 

2015 CROIX DE BEAUCAILLOU SAINT-JULIEN

Price: $93.00    Sale $81.84

 

The 2015 La Croix de Beaucaillou is a blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. It has a floral note on the nose: small black cherries, blueberry and wilted violets, the last becoming more intense as the initially tight-fisted wine opens in the glass.

 

The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin. There is very well-judged acidity and its texture is harmonious and silky smooth. The quality is loaded more in the mouth than on the nose at the moment, but it is a seriously classy "deuxième vin" that just needs a little more persistence on the finish.

 

2018 CROIX DE BEAUCAILLOU SAINT-JULIEN

Price: $87.00    Sale $76.56

 

(91-93 points) Outer quote mark This is not a second wine as such, because it comes from a dedicated part of the vineyard, located on the south bank of La Mouline. The 2018 La Croix de Beaucaillou is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, to be aged 12 months in 60% new barriques. It has a pH of 3.75, 15% alcohol and an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 96. Deep garnet-purple colored, it is a little closed and broody to begin, offering subtle notions of fertile loam, tobacco, truffles and cast iron pan with a core of crème de cassis, blackberry compote and boysenberries with hints of underbrush and bay leaves. Full, rich and seductive in the mouth, it has firm, rounded tannins and just enough freshness to lift the dense fruit to a long finish. (LPB) Inner quote mark (4/2019) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

1986 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien

Price : $499.00             Sale $424.15

 

(94 Points) Medium brick in color with a touch of brown, the 1986 Ducru-Beaucaillou reveals growing notes of dried mulberries, kirsch and raisin cake with nuances of celery salt, dried bay leaves, truffles and charcuterie plus hints of old leather sofa and fallen leaves. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has quite a powerful structure with firm, chewy tannins and bold freshness supporting the muscular, dried berries flavors, finishing long with a dried mint kick.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

 

 

Part Two: Dinner Featuring wines from your cellars

 

 

 

The price of admission is one bottle of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou from your cellar, but here is the catch- we only need 1 bottle of each wine, so the longer you wait to respond the harder it will be to get a seat as you will have to go further back in time because the youngest vintages will be filled up by the first collectors who respond.

 

Here are the vintages that we have already:

 

2018 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien

2017 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien

2008 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien

2006 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien

2001 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will add the vintages as people respond with the vintage they are bringing. 

 

 

 

**There are only 16 spaces available for this event.

 

The dinner starts at 8:00pm Toni Lampasone will be making a special menu to accompany the vertical selection of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou from your cellars.  The fee for the dinner is $150 + tax.

 

 

 

Menu

 

Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie

Veal Bone Marrow canoe with lemon Parsley Gremolata

Venison Tartar with Parmesan Crisp

Duck Confit with Currant Demi and Pomme Frits

Canele Cakes with Rum Pineapple Sauce

 

 

 

The fee for this event which includes dinner is $150 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com. Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any food allergies and chef Toni will be happy to accommodate you.

 

 

 

 

A bit about Ducru Beaucaillou:

 

Ducru-Beaucaillou occupies one of the great settings in the Medoc.  The chateau is one of the most beautiful in Bordeaux, and the rather distinctive Victorian mansion commands a beautiful view of the Gironde River across some low meadows.  The word Beaucaillou translates in French to "beautiful pebble".  Just to the south is the beautiful Chateau Beycheville with its stunning manicured gardens.  Just to the north lies the vineyards of the great Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases, a chateau that often rivals the great Medoc first growths.  In the early part of the nineteenth century this property was known as Bergeron; but when it came into the possession of the Ducru family, their name was adopted, together with that of Beaucaillou, the name the family gave to the place itself.  It was under Monsieur Ducru that that this vineyard received great care and improved its reputation considerably. 

 

When the great wines of the Medoc were classified in 1855, Ducru was accorded second growth status and was recognized as one of the five leading St. Juliens.  Between the two world wars, the reputation of Ducru-Beaucaillou declined considerably.  After the Second World War, it came under the management of Jean-Eugene Borie, whose father had purchased the property.  Jean-Eugene Borie, known as a devoted winelover and a man driven to excellence, immediately began a concerted effort to regain Ducru's lost position of esteem.  The watershed year for Ducru came in 1953; that vintage did more than anything else to reestablish the reputation and standing of Ducru-Beaucaillou.  The 1961 was entered in an important blind tasting in Holland in 1978, where it placed first among ten leading growths of the 1961 vintage; it was then placed on a par with the first growths in the second half of the tasting.  In most of the important vintages since 1961, Ducru-Beaucaillou has been among the leading ten or fifteen wines of Bordeaux.  Bob Parker, in his exciting and comprehensive new book called BORDEAUX, has stated that many vintages (from 1961 onward) of Ducru "can challenge any of the Medoc first growths."  Although our tasting experience is not as broad and does not go back as far as other wine authorities, we would have to concur with Mr. Parker on recent vintages of Ducru-Beaucaillou.  Of course, the tremendous improvement in quality has not been lost on close followers of the Bordeaux scene.  Over the years, the price of Ducru has increased dramatically.  Along with Leoville-Las-Cases and Gruaud-Larose, Ducru-Beaucaillou is considered one of the jewels of St. Julien.  All three chateaux have been producing outstanding wines in the last few vintages.  The positioning of Ducru-Beaucaillou near the river seems to make it a little lighter in breed and more elegant than the typical softer, fruitier St. Juliens. (Chateaux further inland seem to produce softer, fruitier wines.)  In their youth the wines of Ducru are a little hard and unyielding (although not as hard as those of Leoville-Las-Cases); and in a good vintage it usually takes about eight or ten years for the wines to approach maturity (in great vintages the wait can be 15 years.)  However, the wait is well worth it; these wines often develop into great clarets.