Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very classical St. Julien that’s got good concentration and real elegance, too. Great black fruits on the nose with subtle oak, and the richness and dry tannins are balanced out beautifully. You could drink it now, but this will age beautifully.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Beychevelle checks in as a Merlot-heavy blend of 51% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest equal parts Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. This deeply colored 2014 offers loads of ripe black cherry and smoky blackberry fruit as well as an undeniable minerality in its charcoal, toasted spice, and graphite aromas and flavors. With medium to full-bodied richness, good concentration, notable tannin, and a fresh, classic style, this age-worthy 2014 will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and keep for two-plus decades.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is already a delicious wine in the balanced Saint-Julien style. Smooth and ripe, it is fruity with a structure that promises medium-term aging. The rich aftertaste shows both the promise and the pleasure of the wine. Drink from 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Beychevelle has a very comely, pure bouquet with heightened dark cherry, blackcurrant and wilted violet scents rendering it almost more Margaux-like than Saint Julien. The palate is medium-bodied, svelte in texture with light tannin. It is a nimble Beychevelle, light on its feet with wonderful freshness and tension towards the finish. This is a very well-crafted wine from Philippe Blanc and his team, a St. Julien that is nimble on its toes.
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Wine Spectator
This has a fleshy feel, with plum and blackberry compote notes driving along thanks to a solid graphite spine. Anise and roasted apple wood on the finish. Best from 2019 through 2030.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
A very authentic Saint-Julien—over the last few decades many wineries have chosen to make more modern-styled wines— Château Beychevelle has stayed the traditional course and produced a fine effort in 2014. This wine exhibits loads of ripe fruit, savory herbs, and dried leather. Its well-structured and firm palate pair it well with a ribeye of beef topped with diced shallots. (Tasted: January 27, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
Real concentration, good spice, deep and rich, clear vitality. This is an excellent Château Beychevelle, with roundness and richness to the fruit without sacrificing its Medoc typicity. It opens beautifully, unpeeling through the glass to show cedar and smoked rosemary notes. It was a small crop at 38hl/ha, with the highest ever percentage of Merlot used in the blend due to difficult fruit set and a low yield for Cabernet Sauvignon. Despite this, you would be hard pressed not to enjoy this 2014. 5% Cabernet Franc makes up the blend.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
An icon of balance and tradition, St. Julien boasts the highest proportion of classed growths in the Médoc. What it lacks in any first growths, it makes up in the rest: five amazing second growth chateaux, two superb third growths and four well-reputed fourth growths. While the actual class rankings set in 1855 (first, second, and so on the fifth) today do not necessarily indicate a score of quality, the classification system is important to understand in the context of Bordeaux history. Today rivalry among the classed chateaux only serves to elevate the appellation overall.
One of its best historically, the estate of Leoville, was the largest in the Médoc in the 18th century, before it was divided into the three second growths known today as Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Léoville-Barton. Located in the north section, these are stone’s throw from Chateau Latour in Pauillac and share much in common with that well-esteemed estate.
The relatively homogeneous gravelly and rocky top soil on top of clay-limestone subsoil is broken only by a narrow strip of bank on either side of the “jalle,” or stream, that bisects the zone and flows into the Gironde.
St. Julien wines are for those wanting subtlety, balance and consistency in their Bordeaux. Rewarding and persistent, the best among these Bordeaux Blends are full of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco and licorice. They are intense and complex and finish with fine, velvety tannins.