Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
The Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is one of the most famous wineries of Bordeaux . Since the classification of 1855 , the winery has been classified as Deuxième Grand Cru Classé , the second highest level of the classification.
location
The château is located in Saint-Julien on the Gironde , in the vicinity of the Beychevelle estate and close to the "Route du Vin". It belongs to the operating company Jean-Eugène Borie SA , who has been director Bruno-Eugène Borie since 2003. Bruno-Eugène had already taken over the Lillet company in 1985 . Borie is one of the few winery owners who live on the estate themselves.
Wines
The vineyards cover 52 hectares and are occupied with 70 percent of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape variety , 25 percent Merlot and 5 percent Cabernet Franc . For quality reasons, the density of vines is 10,000 per hectare, the yield fluctuates between 35 and 45 hl per hectare. The vines are on average 40 years old. The estate's total production amounts to around 300,000 bottles of wine per year, of which around 25 percent is accounted for by the second wine "La Croix de Beaucaillou".
The wine from Château Ducru-Beaucaillou takes at least a dozen years in the bottle to reach maturity. Great vintages build up for decades. 1966, 1970, 1982 and 1986 are considered to be outstanding. The best vintages in recent times were 1995 and 1996. These are rated by the wine critic Robert Parker with 96 and 94 Parker points . A bottle of these vintages can rarely be bought for less than 100 euros (as of 2005). The wines of 2000 (94 + PP), 2003 (96PP) and 2005 (97PP) are also promising, but still too young to be enjoyed.
Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is accompanied and advised by the oenologist Jacques Boissenot and his son Eric.
history
Originally the estate emerged from a division of the Beychevelle barony. In 1795 the château was acquired by Bertrand Ducru. Allegedly, the classification as Deuxième Cru 1855 is due to the fact that Ducru-Beaucaillou was continuously served during the meetings of the classification committee. In 1866 the property was acquired for one million francs by the Johnson family, who sold it to Desbartes de Burke in 1928. In 1941 the estate went to the Borie family.
reception
The wine has found its way into scientific literature. In his habilitation thesis, Nils Jansen , professor at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster , discusses the limitation of individual freedom through practical constraints (in contrast to state regulations) using the example of the increases in the price of a bottle of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou .
literature
- Charles Cocks, Edouard Féret, Bruno Boidron: Bordeaux et ses vins . 18th edition. Èdition Féret et Fils, Bordeaux 2007, ISBN 978-2-35156-013-6 .
- Horst Dippel: The wine lexicon . 3. Edition. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13826-4 .
- Robert Parker : Parker's Wine Guide (= Collection Rolf Heyne ). Heyne, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-453-16305-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Horst Dippel : The great Bordeaux wines . 2nd Edition. Econ Düsseldorf, 1994, ISBN 3-430-12099-3 , pp. 195 ff .
- ^ Nils Jansen: The structure of liability law . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-16-147988-2 , p. 66f.