Château Ducru-Beaucaillou

The Château Ducru - Beaucaillou is one of the most famous wineries of Bordeaux. Since the classification of 1855, the winery is classified as Deuxième Grand Cru Classé, the second-highest level of classification.

Location

The Château is located in Saint -Julien on the Gironde, in the vicinity of the goods Beychevelle and close to the " Route du Vin ". It is part of the operating company Jean Eugène Borie SA - which projects as a director since 2003, Bruno -Eugène Borie. Bruno -Eugène took over the company Lillet already in 1985. Borie is one of the few winery owners who live on the estate itself.

Wines

The vineyards cover 52 hectares and are 70 percent of Cabernet Sauvignon, 25 percent Merlot and 5 percent Cabernet Franc occupied. For quality reasons, the vine density is 10,000 per hectare, the yield varies between 35 and 45 hectoliters per hectare. The vines are on average 40 years old. The total production of goods comprises around 300,000 bottles of wine per year, of which about 25 percent to the second wine " La Croix de Beaucaillou ".

The wine of Château Ducru - Beaucaillou requires at least a dozen years in the bottle to reach maturity. Great vintages are expanding for decades. To be outstanding are 1966, 1970, 1982 and 1986. The best vintages of recent times were 1995 and 1996. These are valued by the wine critic Robert Parker with 96 and 94 Parker points. A bottle of these cohorts are rarely below 100 euros to buy (as of 2005). The wines of 2000 ( 94 PP ), 2003 ( 96PP ) and 2005 ( 97PP ) are promising, but still too young to enjoy.

Château Ducru - Beaucaillou is accompanied and advised by the oenologist Jacques Boissenot and his son Eric.

History

Originally the estate was created from a division of the barony Beychevelle. 1795 Château Bertrand Ducru was purchased. Supposedly, the classification as Deuxième Cru is due in 1855 to the fact that during the meetings of the Classification Committee constantly Ducru - Beaucaillou was served. 1866, the property was acquired by one million francs from the Johnson family, which sold it in 1928 to Desbartes de Burke. In 1941 the property to the Borie family.

Reception

The wine has found its way into the scientific literature. In his habilitation thesis discussed Nils Jansen, a professor at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, limiting individual freedom by constraints (as opposed to state regulations ) on the example of increases in the price of a bottle of Château Ducru - Beaucaillou.