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Wine Description
The Story
Each year, Château Beauséjour hDL takes into consideration the quality of the harvest and adapts its vinification accordingly. A subtle balance between the frequency and intensity of the "pumping-over" process must respect the wine's maceration, which varies in duration, in order to extract the best tannins.
For over thirty years, the Michel Rolland Laboratory has accompanied Château Beauséjour hDL during the vinification of each vintage. The wine is afterwards refined for 16 to 18 months in oak "shook" barrels, then aged in bottles at a constant temperature in limestone quarries.
A portion of the vineyard is rooted in argilo-calcareous soil with an asteriated subsoil, while the remaining vines are rooted in the limestone that, here and there, rises to the surface at the top of the hill.
Today, the vineyard's varietals are made up of 81% Merlot, which particularly appreciates the coolness and humidity of the clayey soil and contributes fruitiness and fullness to the château's wines, and 19% Cabernet (16% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon), which provides powerful aroma and structure. On average, the vines are between 35 and 40 years old.
Vintage 1996
The 1996s stand as a “classic” Bordeaux year, although – as Jancis Robinson MW has written – not in the “skinny” sense; although Farr Vintners’ director, Tom Hudson, told the drinks business that it was perhaps a “very good” rather than a “truly great” year as it wasn’t uniformly excellent across the region.
By way of a recap, 1996 was a particularly sterling vintage for Médoc wines. The Berry Bros & Rudd website extolls: “This is one of the great post-war vintages for Médoc Cabernet-based wines. They are rich, complex and beautifully balanced wines, packed with ripe, pure fruit and have the structure that will allow the top wines to age well into the next decade and beyond.”
The Right Bank by contrast are described as “distinguished” but “overshadowed” by the ‘95s – which was an especially good vintage for Saint Emilion and Pomerol.
It was also an excellent vintage for white Bordeaux.
Robert Parker’s scores tend to favour the Left Bank, though a few of the very best wines of the Right Bank received very respectable reviews as well.
Only two wines received 100-points: Lafite and Latour, Margaux was rated 99, Léoville Las Cases 98, Ducru Beaucaillou 96 and Pichon-Comtesse 96.
La Mondotte was the highest rated Right Bank wine on 97-points, Ausone was the next best rated on 93 as was L’Eglise Clinet, while Gomerie, Petrus and Le Pin settled for 92 and Cheval Blanc for 90.
With the passage of nearly 20 years, the wines have naturally appreciated and now that they are well into their drinking window demand will almost certainly begin to push prices up even further for the most in-demand among them.
The figures are often impressive, to date Lafite has seen a rise of 657.9% since its release, its second wine Carruades is up 592%, Latour has risen 437%, Petrus 400% and Pichon Baron 240%.
