Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou 2014 – 750ml XXI

99pts James Suckling

Fabulous aromas of crushed berries such as blackberries and blackcurrants, not to mention spices. Wet earth and cedar, too. Complex. Full-bodied, yet agile and complete. A dense center palate. Ultra-round tannins. Everything in the right balance. Wonderful to taste but better to drink in 2022.

97pts Decanter

We are now in the realm of truly young wines, and also in the realm of Ducru just totally hitting its stride and celebrating it potential. This is young and inky in colour, fresh with plenty of St Julien signature: real menthol freshness and cigar box seduction – great Cabernet flavours. This is barely getting going and is a wine that you want to know what happens next. Excellent stuff, spicy, powerful and juicy. 100% new oak.

96pts Wine Enthusiast

This powerful wine has a superb mix of the crispest fruit and great structure. Blackberries and black currants shine through the tannins, expressing the liveliness of the vintage. It is so well delineated with everything in its place. The wine is certainly going to age for decades. Drink from 2027.

96pts Jeb Dunnuck

I just love the style of this estate and the 2014 Ducru-Beaucaillou is an undeniable success in the vintage. Made from 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot brought up in 100% new French oak, it offers a deep purple color as well as both elegance and power in its crème de cassis, raspberries, cedarwood, graphite, and floral bouquet, with its background oak smothered in fruit. Possessing a classic elegance, full-bodied richness, sweet tannin, and stunning length, it one of the wines of the vintage and will drink nicely for another two to three decades.

95Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Very deep garnet in color, the 2014 Ducru-Beaucaillou springs from the glass, offering vibrant notions of fresh black currants, black cherries and black raspberries with touches of spice box, licorice and fragrant soil plus a waft of lavender. Medium-bodied, the palate bursts with lively, crunchy black fruits, supported by ripe, grainy tannins and finishing on a lingering spicy note.

95pts Wine Spectator

Opulent, with layers of warmed fig, boysenberry and blackberry confiture that loll along, yet are kept going by a terrific graphite note that is well-buried throughout. Alluring black tea, singed mesquite and bittersweet cocoa accents add to the panache. A head-turner. Best from 2020 through 2040.

Winemaker Notes

Intense garnet red color. An elegant bouquet very Ducru-Beaucaillou! Cedar at the start then notes of black pepper with a hint of vanilla. With airing, it evolves towards subtle hints of fine spices and notes of black cherry. Gorgeous palate with a beautiful tannin grain and perfect harmony. A neat and polished wine with excellent definition. Great freshness. Amazing purity. A succulent wine, vibrant, brilliant, wonderfully balanced.

Blend: 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot

About the Winery

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.