The 2014 Ducru Beaucaillou has been uncorked...

[JimHow]

Wowza.

[JimHow]

I think this bottle weighs about eight pounds.

[JimHow]

I know some might think it is insanity to uncork this wine, but I have been chomping at the bit.
I know Comte thinks the modern Ducrus are too... modern... but damn I just disagree.
At least in this stellar 2014 vintage.
Sure, this 13% beauty benefits from modern wine making techniques.
And at the very outset it comes across as big and extracted.
But with air it settles down ... oh baby, it is like, well, it is like George McCrae's 1975 music/dance miracle, "Rock Your BAby"....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptWkfzE8BbA

95+ points.

[Nicklasss]

Enjoyed on your own?

Nice rating on i guess a great Saint Julien.

Jim, you're my favorite grader for young Bordeaux. But Chateau Grand-Puy Lacoste is like Isaac Asimov wrote: "life is great, being dead is serene, in between is shity".

Nic

P.s. Mr Asimov was more polite, but i tried to figure out shortly.

[JimHow]

I enjoyed that Ducru a lot, I have two bottles left and I'm gonna buy a couple more when they go on sale in NH this summer.

[tiesface]

Awesome. I bought a 6 pack EP and haven't cracked one. Closing down at all?

[JimHow]

Maybe a little TF but for my taste this is a profound wine.
Loved it. Been thinking about it all day.
It’s going to live a long time but the fruit of the wine and character of the vintage are a great combination here.
I’m gonna get more.

[Racer Chris]

I'll have to be satisfied with the 2014 La Croix Ducru Beaucaillou at one third the price.
Cellartracker average: 92.4
My score: 94
The best price I can get locally on their first wine is $135 and that's well outside my buying range.

[JimHow]

Made a rare visit over to cellartracker, I see the first label gets consistently very high marks, like wine of the vintage stuff.
This 2014 is a beauty!

[JimHow]

I think this wine may even age as well as George McCrae has 40 years later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL7PH_XU2vw

[Comte Flaneur]

Thanks for the note Jim.

Ducru went a bit over to the dark side when Bruno Borie took over, though the wines were never as bling as the inside of the estate.

Bruno hosted a tasting a few years ago, and I was generally underwhelmed by the noughties wines except the 2009, which is amazing.

This wine sounds fantastic. Jim’s note is echoed by the CT notes, and this wine is less expensive than I thought it would be. Seems indeed like it is a ‘must have’ wine.

[Blanquito]

I think 2014 is a modern day Goldilocks vintage: just right.

[Comte Flaneur]

Baron would be on my potential hit list too. Just a bit better than the very impressive 2012.

The prices of 2014s look quite attractive.

[JimHow]

The recent prices I’ve paid for 2014s have been great:

Lynch, $91
Baron, $99
Lalonde, $99
Ducru: $116
Clerc, $52

I got a case or nearly a case of each.
It’s my kind of vintage!

[Comte Flaneur]

Good prices, Jim. Cheaper than Blighty even at current exchange rates. Is that from the fabled NH liquor store?

[JimHow]

Indeed. I convinced them to give me a 15% discount even though they weren't on sale this month.

[Comte Flaneur]

Spurred on by our BD I purchased two and decided to open one yesterday even though it was a terrible day to do so and keeping the wine at the right temperature was a challenge. It was 93F here in London yesterday.

It reminds me of the 1995 Ducru, a wine of first growth quality. This wine has terrific precision, purity, packing in rich chocolate infused red cherries, other dark fruits, schist and gravel, with perfect acidity.

I don’t know if this will close down, but it will be interesting to monitor it’s evolution. I still have cases of 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2000 ahead of it in the queue. But this wine helped restore my faith in this property which had been shaken by an indifferent set of wines from the noughties in a vertical I attended a few years ago.

But this wine is a jewel, an emerald, take it away the Detroit Emeralds.

https://youtu.be/Z3jU6vlCobo

[Comte Flaneur]

D92090AD-14DC-4F45-9D8A-A2E5E67BD26B.jpeg (82.07 KiB) Viewed 1093 times

[JimHow]

Well done, Comte, I have two left in my cellar and am about to acquire 7 more at a great price.

[Comte Flaneur]

I had to pay about $130 pb

Would be interested in your opinion of the Pichons Jim.

I tried the Baron at a vertical 18 months ago and it is superb, slightly ahead of the excellent 2012.

I h ad very good things about Comtesse too.

[AKR]

The recent prices I’ve paid for 2014s have been great:

Lynch, $91
Baron, $99
Lalonde, $99
Ducru: $116
Clerc, $52

I got a case or nearly a case of each.
It’s my kind of vintage!

Are the NH state stores still tax free?

I remember in college that at the beginning of each semester, I'd fill up a van with canned beer from the stores up there, saving both the sales tax and the nickel/can deposit. We had a soda machine in our fraternity house that we'd converted to selling beer cans (for 50c) so I had to get really cheap beer to keep it stocked.

And every now and then we'd stick in what we called a 'bonus' beer, something like a fancy pants can - Heineken or something like that to keep the enthusiasts attention up. There were also the occasional penalty ones - a can of pineapple soda too.

[JimHow]

Yes. NH is still tax free.
I’m about to get a great deal, will report back.

[jckba]

Ducru is arguably the top Saint Julian and while I have really been meaning to pick up some of the 2014 for the better part of the last year, every time I see some for sale I hesitate as it is for more than I would like. One of these days though, I will bite the bullet and stick a case in the cellar.