Winemaker Notes
Deep, vivid, intense purple-black and brilliant in color. The nose is open, generous and hamonious. Redolent of pure, ripe, healthy fruits, rich and warm bouquet. On the palate, truly remarkable, energy and vivacity, wonderful polished tannins. Deep-fruited and delicious. Very long persistence.
Blend: 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Cabernet Sauvignon's savoury black fruit flavours dominate on the attack, along with a swirl of spice. Small berries meant great concentration, and the vintage saw a full 130 days between flowering and harvest (compared, for example , with 115 days in 2005). Rich in expression of fruit, with complexity and a lovely slate character along with charcoal, liquorice and campfire. This is a lovely glass of polished St-Julien. Harvest from 19 September to 10 October. 66% new oak. Drinking Window 2023 - 2038
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The second wine of this great domaine is the 2018 La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou. A blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot, this ripe, opulent beauty boasts a dense purple color to go with a sexy, full-bodied style showing loads of blackcurrants, cassis, spice, candied violet, and tobacco-like aromas and flavors. Plush, full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, this is one big, sumptuous Saint-Julien that's going to evolve for 15-20 years or more.
-
James Suckling
Aromas of blackberry, blueberry and blackcurrant with violet and lavender, following through to a full body with very fine tannins and a creamy, beautifully caressing texture. Like the chocolate, walnut and berry aftertaste. Second wine of Ducru. Drink after 2025.
-
Wine Spectator
The solid core of kirsch and plum sauce flavors is laced with apple wood and graphite notes. Direct and well-built. Rating: 90-93.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 La Croix de Beaucaillou is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, aged 12 months in two-third new barriques. It has a pH of 3.75, 15% alcohol and an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 96. Deep garnet-purple colored, it rolls effortlessly out of the glass with vibrant notes of crushed blueberries, baked plums and blackcurrant cordial with hints of bouquet garni, underbrush, clove oil and cast-iron pan. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a sturdy frame of firm, grainy tannin's and just enough freshness supporting the muscular black fruits, finishing earthy. Not a second wine as such, because it comes from a dedicated part of the vineyard, the blocks for La Croix de Beaucaillou are generally located on the south bank of the La Mouline steam.
Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou is named after the beautiful, large stones found in its unique wine-growing terroir. This exceptional ecosystem produces fine, elegant, tasty wines with a long finish - in short, archetypical Saint-Julien wines.
Perched on an exceptional site with incomparable views over the Gironde estuary, in the center of a hundred-year-old park, Ducru-Beaucaillou is a majestic, Victorian-style castle, which has, over time, become one of the great symbols of the Médoc. Unusual for Bordeaux, it is built directly above the barrel cellars, enveloping its owners, who have lived here for over sixty years.
Today, the estate is managed by the company Jean Eugène Borie SA, which is owned by Mrs Borie, her daughter Sabine Coiffe and her son Bruno-Eugène, CEO since 2003, the third generation of the Borie family to head the estate. There are very close links between this estate and the five families who have been its successive owners.
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.