WTN: whoo hoo Ducru Beaucaillou

Seven good geeks gathered last night at Fabio Piccolo Fiore for a vertical of Ducru-Beaucaillou (we were supposed to be 8, but car trouble knocked out one friend). Nice table, a couple of service glitches, but that veal chop is fun.

Opener was the 2007 Ramonet "Les Vergers" Chassagne-Montrachet 1er. Table seems to have divided luck with Ramonet and PremOx, but my experience has been quite iffy, so I'm in camp of drinking up early. Not too painful to drink this early- lemon and pit fruits, herbs (though not mint!), a touch of oak. Nice way to start (and to revisit when the crab salad came around). B+

On to the reds:
1966 Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
I never actually tasted, a sniff was enough, a quick trip to Madeira. Too bad, because good bottles of this are quite nice.

1970 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
Double-decanted in afternoon. Showing well, rather plush black fruit on palate, a touch of animal, some complex tertiary aromas of cigarbox/tobacco/cedar family. Tangy acids, resolved tannins. B+/A-

1983 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
This was quite lovely, elegant and long. A-

1998 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
This was really showing well for RB 1998. Young but approachable, drink now or wait. Midbodied, elegant, tasty. B+

1996 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
I thought this most tight wine of the night. You can feel the weight and density, but most of this wine is in reserve. I think it will be spectacular in 10-15 years. B- for now, could easily be in A territory.

1982 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
This has the '82 ripeness, but it's balanced by good acids and still has some ripe tannin. Medium to full bodied, long, drinking quite well in my opinion. A-

2000 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
Big, powerful, quite primary, I think it'll be very very good, but this and the 1996 were my least favorite for drinking now. B/B- for now, A- potential.

2000 La Croix de Beaucaillou (St Julien)
Chris realized when he decanted '66 that it was deader than a MP parrot, so grabbed this. Interesting comparison with the 2000 first wine, similar profile, but this was more easygoing and giving at moment. B/B+

1988 Ch. Mayne Des Carmes
Ramon says this is the 2nd wine of Rieussec (now known as Carmes de Rieussec). It was a nice end to the evening, with that lifting '88 acidity, though I thought it a bit foursquare. Maybe not complex, but good freshness and balance. B/B+

Fun night. I could have summed up all the Ducrus with "elegant" and "balanced"
Thanks all

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks Dale. At least I'll keep my hands off my few bottles of 2000 Ducru...

Nice lineup. Love the 83 and 82 Ducrus, glad they showed well.

Shame about that 66...

I should note that Bill pointed out it was Matt's birthday, and we toasted him in faroff NZ, since this was the "Matt group."

1970 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
Double-decanted in afternoon. Showing well, rather plush black fruit on palate, a touch of animal, some complex tertiary aromas of cigarbox/tobacco/cedar family. Tangy acids, resolved tannins. B+/A-

Dale, I am interested that it was decided to double decant this 1970. I always serve mine from the bottle because I'm worried about too much exposure to air of this 40 year old claret, having found a few years ago that a decanted bottle faded quite fast. It doesn't sound, though, as if your bottle suffered from the treatment.

Another thing I find with nearly all my bottles of 1970 Ducru is crumbly corks of the sort where the corkscrew quite neatly pulls out the centre of the cork leaving the outside adhering firmly to the neck of the bottle. The wine itself does not seem to have suffered but I have to pour it out through a filter which lets some cork dust pass through.

Tim,
no fading. As a matter of fact, my final "let's give this one more try" wine before heading for Grand Central for train home was a final sip of the 70, still going well. I opted for decanting because there would have been no way to let sediment out of solution after walk to Dobbs station, train to GC, and walk to restaurant.
My cork came out cleanly when I opened, but I used an AhSo.

Sad to miss it. Honored to be a part of it in my own small way!

I'm a big fan of the 1996 Ducru Beaucaillou. It won my vote for WOTN at 1996 horizontals in both 2006 and earlier this year, beating the likes of LLC, Pichon Baron, Pichon Lalande, Haut Brion, Lynch, Pontet Canet, GPL, Cos, Montrose, LMHB etc.

I like the Ducru style a lot, a very nice mix of power and elegance. Wish I could afford more of it!

Thanks for picking up the torch, Dale.

Great notes, very helpful, Dale. Thanks!

I loved the bottle of 1970 Ducru I drank about 2 years. Definitely agree with the animal, leather and tobacco descriptors. Your note makes me wish I had some more! The 1982 can also be fantastic. Of the 4 times I've had it, at least twice it was toweringly excellent. Just thinking about it makes me want to organize a similar tasting!

Michael

I scored the 1990 at a very nice price a couple of years ago. That's one of the vintages that were supposedly off for Ducru, but it drank very well, although it needed air to shed a very fruity first impression, which led one fellow taster to drink his glass up fast, thinking it was a Super-Tuscan. Poor guy was very distraught once the bottle was unveiled.

Had the 2000 last night, was incredibly young, undeveloped and primary as you describe - but without much enjoyment right now.