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Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou 2016

Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, Bordeaux, France

Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
Bordeaux France
  • 100
    Points
  • The 157 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 11 Pros of
    11 recommend
    this wine
252 100
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    129

  • Producer ranking ?

    2

  • Decanting time

    4h

  • When to drink

    from 2025

  • Food Pairing

    Mushroom Risotto

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou is named after the beautiful, large stones found in its unique wine-growing terroir. This exceptional ecosystem produces fine, elegant, tasty wines, with a long finish – in short, archetypal Saint-Julien wines.

Perched on an exceptional site with incomparable views over the Gironde estuary, in the centre of a hundred-year-old park, Ducru-Beaucaillou is a majestic, Victorian-style castle, which has, over time, becom...

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Wine Information

Ducru-Beaucaillou’s 75 hectares are planted with 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot Noir. The average age of the vines is 35. Over time, fertility is moderated and a root network develops (reaching up to 6 metres deep), both reducing the effect of climatic excess and increasing the take-up of nutrients from the soil and subsoil. Meticulously exploring the poor, arid soil to find the necessary nutrients and water, the roots carry back the tr...

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Vintage 2016

2016 Bordeaux in Review  “A Paradox”

by Andrew Caillard MW

The 2016 Bordeaux vintage will be remembered as one of the great years of the 21st Century. I have not been so excited about the prospects of such young wines since the remarkable back-to-back 2009 and 2010 vintages. At that time China was at the zenith of its extraordinary fine wine ascendency where the very top estates, particularly Chateau Lafite, had become a baksheesh curren...

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

 Power and purity with intensity, length, volume, style, and character, this is what great wine is all about. On the palate, the wine is mouth-filling, yet, light on its feet, almost weightless. The tannins are refined, The wine is silky, The fruits, which express their purity are expansive. As good as the nose is, on the palate, the wine builds in all 4 directions. as it crosses your taste receptors and coats your palate, teeth, and gums. The finish is seamless, resonating for over 60 seconds!. The wine blends 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with 15% Merlot. Drink from 2030-2065.

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  • 100p

Tasted in November 2022. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon + 15% Merlot. Big scaled, intense nose of cassis and blackberries, potent on the palate with a strong backbone and excellent structure. Great midpalate, depth, and acidity. The perfect combination of power and elegance added a nice portion of nobility. A fabulous wine with a long life ahead.

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  • 98p

Reminding me of the 2010 with its incredible stature and class (as opposed to the more opulently styled 2009), the 2016 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is a legendary wine from the genius of Bruno Borie, who has managed this estate brilliantly since he arrived in 2003. A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot brought up all in new oak, the 2016 has a mammoth bouquet of crème de cassis, espresso, camphor, crushed violets, toasty oak, and graphite. Full-bodied, concentrated, and backward on the palate, it nevertheless has perfectly integrated acidity and building tannins, a concentrated, layered texture, off-the-charts purity of fruit, and a finish that won't quit. Give this powerful, concentrated wine a solid 7-8 years of bottle age and enjoy it over the following 50 years or more.

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  • 100p

Deep colour. Intense black currant, liquorice dark children aromas. Really opulent and beautiful. Generous elegant style with cassis herb flavours, fine mature chalky tannins and integrated savoury oak notes. Lovely natural power, density and length. Will be something. Tasted at Ch Ducru Beaucaillou. 98 points 

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  • 98p

Dark purple red with violet hue and black core. Dark berries, blackcurrants and cherries, vanilla, gingerbread, cloves and cocoa, discreet nuances of white pepper in the background. On the palate well structured and balanced with excellent fruit, sweet fruit, intense but ripe tannins and great length. 97

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  • 97p
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Information

Origin

St.Julien, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Average

Fake factory

None

Inside Information

The topography and geology of the terroir of Ducru-Beaucaillou is quite remarkable in many ways and is highly suited to the production of great wines.
Moreover, its immediate proximity to the Gironde estuary plays a key role in the microclimate of this vineyard. The huge amount of water moved by the tides four times a day act as air—conditioners providing heat in winter and coolness in summer. In this vast estuary (which stretches to almost 4 miles at this point), huge masses of air are moved, contributing to the temperate climate and generally sparing the local vineyards the ravages of frost (like in 1991) and hailstorms (with the historic exception of 2003).

The communal terroir of Saint-Julien (800 hectares) is characterised by a layer of Garonne, or Günz, gravel dating from the early Quaternary period. This gravel is blown by the wind from east to west, ending up as tiny white gravel stones and sand on the western side of the area coming under the appellation.

The 75-hectare vineyard of Ducru-Beaucaillou lies on the eastern edge of this great communal terroir, near the river and among the deepest layers of Quaternary gravel stones. 

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