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: 2010 Ducru-Beaucaillou, St-Julien

2010 Ducru-Beaucaillou, St-Julien (Pre-Arrival)

SKU #1066905 100 points Jeb Dunnuck

Outer quote mark While I loved the 2010 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou on release I’ve always preferred the 2009. However, the 2010 showed sensationally on this occasion, and while in a different style than the 2009, it’s unquestionably as good. Still ruby/purple-hued, it offers up extraordinary notes of pure crème de cassis, unsmoked tobacco, spice, and damp earth, and it’s the purity of fruit as well as the incredible depth and intensity that makes this wine so special. Full-bodied, deep, profound, and seamless on the palate, it offers incredible pleasure today but it’s going to be a 50-year, if not a 100-year wine. Hats off to Bruno Borie. Inner quote mark (2/2020)

100 points James Suckling

Outer quote mark The nose is phenomenal with perfect aromas of Cabernet Sauvignon with currant bush, blackberries and minerals. A pure expression of Cab. The palate is perfect with a full body, but has perfectly integrated tannins with a texture like the finest cashmere. It's strong but noble with perfect form and beauty. All in harmony. A fabulous wine that everyone who loves Bordeaux should have a bottle or case of. Better in 2020. Inner quote mark (2/2013)

98 points Decanter

Outer quote mark There is tannin build up at this point in the vertical, but in the most enjoyable way - a clear indication of how much complexity there is in these wines and how densely knitted together they are, bedding down for the long term. This wine in particular has barely an end in sight, it just stretches out before you, confident in its fleshy texture and layers of expression. This is really at the top of what you hope from St Julien, confident and intense yet still with the balance and freshness of the appellation. It has great persistency and keeps hanging on, delivering flavour an inch at a time. Wonderful. Drinking Window 2023 - 2045. (JA) Inner quote mark (9/2019)

98 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark Deep garnet colored, the 2010 Ducru-Beaucaillou bursts from the glass with bold, expressive blackcurrant cordial, baked plums and mulberries scents plus wafts of menthol, Marmite toast, black olives and dried lavender. Full-bodied, the palate is built like a brick house, with solid walls of super firm, super ripe tannins and bold freshness supporting the muscular black fruits, finishing with great length. (LPB) 98+ Inner quote mark (3/2020)

97 points Wine Spectator

Outer quote mark Not shy at all, with a flamboyant, aromatic profile of roasted apple wood and warm ganache, featuring more than enough stuffing in the form of thickly layered blackberry paste, steeped fig and pastis-soaked plum flavors. The structure is massive but incredibly polished, and the fruit displays terrific purity through the graphite-supported finish. Large-scale and extremely well-rendered. (JM) Inner quote mark (3/2013)

96 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2010 Ducru-Beaucaillou has a seriously fine bouquet with plenty of black fruit, cedar and hints of camphor that blossom from the glass. So much vigour and intensity here, yet it remains beautifully delineated and focused. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain, supple tannins. There is a fine bead of acidity, fresh and focused, one of the most pliant Saint-Julien crus in this flight with a supple finish that belies that structure underneath. It reminds me of Léoville Poyferré. Superb. (NM) Inner quote mark (4/2020)

96 points Wine Enthusiast

Outer quote mark A grand wine, it has great ripeness and richness, majestic in its structure and upright character. It is concentrated, perfumed and opulent. The style of Ducru Beaucaillou is both generous and powerful, and obviously ageworthy. *Cellar Selection* (RV) Inner quote mark (5/2013)

95 points John Gilman

Outer quote mark The 2010 Ducru-Beaucaillou is a riveting success for the vintage and one of the best three or four wines to be found on the Left Bank this year. The bouquet is deep, pure and stunning, as it soars from the glass in a mélange of sweet cassis, dark berries, tobacco, a superb, gravelly soil signature, coffee and a fair dollop of spicy new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and fabulously structured, with great intensity at the core, impeccable focus and balance, plenty of ripe, beautifully integrated tannins and outstanding length and grip on the palate-staining and dancing finish. Here is one of the extremely rare 2010s that actually is worthy of all the hyperbole bantered around about this vintage! (Drink between 2022-2100) 95+ points Inner quote mark (6/2012)

95 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

Outer quote mark Medium red-ruby. Sexy, ripe aromas of black- and redcurrant, cedar and minerals, lifted by a subtle minty note; an essence of perfumed Saint-Julien cabernet sauvignon. Then rich, deep and incredibly vibrant, displaying major dimensions for Ducru as well as a dense kernel of complex, delineated blackcurrant, red cherry, milk chocolate, cedar and fresh herb flavor. Finishes wonderfully long and subtle, with suave tannins that eventually dust the front teeth and a quintessentially silky texture. If the 2010 vintage is a modern classic, this wine could be Exhibit A. (ST) 95+ Inner quote mark (7/2013)

K&L Notes

98+ Robert Parker upon release: "With loads of minerality, a terrific opaque purple color, and slightly more structure and tannin than either Poyferre or St.-Pierre (and that’s saying something), this is a blockbuster, fabulous Ducru Beaucaillou that should be at its best a good decade from now and last 40-50 years. The proprietor is not alone in thinking this is the finest Ducru Beaucaillou since the 1961. The classic wet rock, creme de cassis, subtle oak and gravelly stoniness of the vineyard come through in this spectacular, full-bodied, gorgeously pure and intense effort. This is wine for the ages that should be forgotten for at least a decade." (03/2020)

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2010 Ducru-Beaucaillou, St-Julien

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By: Steve Greer | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/5/2013 | Send Email

At UGC-Cassis, coffee tart red fruit and spice. Balanced and seamless elegance.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Cabernet Sauvignon and Blends

- Cabernet Sauvignon has come a long way from its role as a blending varietal, however dominant, in the wines of Bordeaux. Today it is the most planted red varietal in the world. Identified as a descendent of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, the late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon needs to be planted in warmer climates to fully ripen. Its small berries can easily be identified for their distinctive blue color, thick skins and high tannins. And while the varietal has its own definitive characteristics: green pepper-like aromas and black currant flavors among them, it is perhaps most prized for its ability to convey terroir, vintage and winemaking. A relatively new varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon started making inroads into the wines of the Médoc and Graves in the late-18th century. Today it is also dominant in the up-and-coming Entre-Deux-Mers region of Bordeaux and can also be found in Southwest France. It is the companion varietal to Sangiovese in Italy's Super Tuscans and is planted all over Europe, stretching to lesser-known winegrowing regions like Russia and Lebanon. In the Americas Cabernet Sauvignon has found champions in every nook and cranny of California and among winemakers in Washington, where it complements plantings of Merlot. In South America, Cab thrives in Chile, but can also be found in smaller amounts in Argentina and even in Mexico.

Country:

France

- When it comes to wine, France stands alone. No other country can beat it in terms of quality and diversity. And while many of its Region, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne most obviously, produce wine as rare, as sought-after and nearly as expensive as gold, there are just as many obscurities and values to be had from little known appellations throughout the country. To learn everything there is to know about French wine would take a lifetime. To understand and appreciate French wine, one only has to begin tasting them.

Sub-Region:

Bordeaux

Specific Appellation:

Saint Julien

- St. Julien, the smallest of the four famous appellations of the Haut Medoc, is known for highly extracted, finely structured, Cabernet-based reds. It is nestled between Pauillac to the north and Margaux to the south. Like St. Estephe, there are no first growths in this area. Leoville-las-Cases, Leoville Poyferre, Leoville Barton, Ducru Beaucaillou, and Gruard Larose are the second-growths of St. Julien followed by Lagrange which is the only third-growth. Beychevelle, Branaire Ducru, St. Pierre, and Talbot, which are all fourth-growth wines, round out the grand cru classe chateaux. In the last several vintages, wineries from this appellation have been out-performing their traditional rankings making many of the wines from this region some of the best values in red wine today.