An evening with Bruno Borie and Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou

[Comte Flaneur]

The UK Wine Society invited Bruno Borie, manager of Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou, to present some of his wines in the Great Hall, Westminster just over the other side of Parliament Square from the Houses of Parliament, just round the corner from Downing Street and a ten minute walk from my office in Victoria. There is something exciting about London on a bright and breezy spring evening, especially when the country is in the grip of election fever, and particularly when there is the mouthwatering prospect of a vertical tasting of one of my favourite Bordeaux estates.

Bruno Borie took over the running of the estate in January 2003 from his older brother Xavier, who went up to run Ch. Grand Puy Lacoste. The conventional wisdom is that Ch Ducru Beaucaillou has stepped up a gear since Bruno took over, placing this estate - with Leovillle Lascases - at the forefront of those ‘super seconds’ challenging the first growths.

Is this an accurate depiction? Well let’s find out…


Fourcas Borie 2010

A Listrac owned by the Borie family, which is mainly merlot with 15% petit verdot. Still youthful, but quite clunky and disjointed. Charmless but probably an OK foil for something like lamb chops? 82

La Croix De Beaucaillou 2010

According to Bruno Borie this is not a 'second' wine - they all say that, don't they? – it is from a dedicated plot in the centre of the appellation. We tried it next to the 2009, which was a useful glimpse into the contrasting styles of these two trophy vintages. The 2010 Croix is still quite tight and coiled, and is not showing much. It is well balanced, fresh, quite racy, and should evolve into a nice wine in 5-6 years, but you could probably do a lot better for the money. However, while the 2009, is more approachable the 2010 is the better wine. 89

La Croix De Beaucaillou 2009

This has a different character to the 2010. It is rounder, fleshier and easier to drink. It is quite mouth filling, which is its strongest attribute. However like the 2009 Segla it lacks personality and complexity and is a bit superficial. You can do a lot better for the money. 87

La Croix Beaucaillou 2006

This was a step down from the 2009, because while it was quaint and charming it lacks oomph and mid palate stuffing. It is a tad hollow and dilute after the nine and ten. Perfectly nice for quaffing I suppose, but not very interesting. 86

Ducru Beaucaillou 2009

Bruno Borie is right, this wine is Beyoncé! It is opulent, bordering on salacious. It fills every nook and cranny like a billowing wave engulfing myriad craggy rock pools. It is richly textured with creamy blackberry fruit, minerals full body and a lot of power without being overwrought, and will no doubt develop plenty more complexity as the wine evolves. This is a quantum leap from La Croix...and light years from the bookish 1978! Even though this is not quite my style you have to admire the quality. It was a great shame we could not compare this to the 2010, which I suspect I would have preferred. 96

Ducru Beaucaillou 2007

After the pyrotechnics of the 2009 this was a much more relaxed and laid back wine, which is showing some development and a bit of Cuban cigar box. While it lacks the power and the concentration of the 2009 it is has a decent presence on the front, mid and back of the palate. Moreover it has more personality than the rather soulless 2006 and 2004. Lovely wine. 91

Ducru Beaucaillou 2006

Bruno Borie proclaimed that he prefers the 2006 to the 2004 and 2008 vintages, and a lot of people in the room appeared to concur. It is a nice enough and correct wine, but then you ask yourself: is that it? It lacks expressiveness and personality. A tad soporific it also lacks the easy going breezy charm of the 2007. 90

Ducru Beaucaillou 2004

This had some more evolution and secondary cedar and cigar box flavours, which made it a bit more interesting than the 2006. But it is remarkably easy and lacking in expression. I get no push back from this or the 2006, it does not challenge the senses or the intellect. The Leoville Barton 2004 is a much better wine than this. 90

Ducru Beaucaillou 2003

Bruno Borie made the good point that there is no 'wine making' as such at Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou they just deal with the hand that Mother Nature confers. So of course this was a hot year, but in Bruno's first year in charge of the estate the end result was an interesting wine, which is great fun to drink and shows little sign of excessive heat damage. Better than most 2003s, though I suspect it will not make old bones. 91

Ducru Beaucaillou 1999

From the pre Bruno era...that's more like it. It has grip and tenacity, it squares up to you and challenges your senses and your intellect. Plenty of cigar box and pencil lead it has evolved into a beautiful Ducru with a fine entry, a dense mid-palate core and a fine finish. 93

Ducru Beaucaillou 1996

At a similar stage of evolution to the 1999, with a little more of everything. Whereas the 1999 is medium bodied, this is medium full, with a little bit more power and intensity. This should provide enormous pleasure over the next 30 years. 94


So, what can we conclude from this encounter?

Has Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou ‘gone over to the dark side’ since Bruno Borie took over? No.

Has the estate lost its way? Well not on the strength of the 2009, and probably the 2010, which we were not fortunate enough to try. It would have been nice to try the five and the 12 too.

Has there been a stylistic inflection under Bruno? I think so yes.

Has this been for the better? Personally I prefer the old style Ducrus, upon which I base my long love affair with this estate. Last night I realised how few encounters I have had with ‘modern’ Ducrus.

Is Ducru still at the top of the pecking order of super seconds? No, not in my opinion. Based on what I have tried I would say that Pichon Baron and Leoville Barton made better – more interesting, more expressive and more intellectually challenging wines - in the noughties.

[RDD]

Well they still have to get over their "corked" reputation in my opinion before it's anywhere near LLC.
I can drink any LLC from the 80's and not worry.
Can't be said of Ducru.
So need a much longer track record to be considered anything close to LLC.

[johnz]

I've always wanted to love this wine, but no vintages I've ever had have really "wowed" me, but the '82 came close. I've had the '70, '78. I've had many, many bottles of 1985 over the years -- good but . . . just not what I would hope for. I have a sole bottle of 1995 that I understand continues to be as hard as nails.

--Gary Rust

[JimHow]

I had the '61 with some BWEers in Boston one night. Tremendous.

[AKR]

Interesting notes - thanks for sharing.

[stefan]

For my smell, LLC hits neither the heights or the depths of Ducru. With Ducru, as with many famous Burgundies, "you pays your money and you takes your chances".

Judging from your descriptions, Ian, I won't love good bottles of Ducru from the current millennium unless they morph into the old style.