Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou2005
RED WINE
- Producer Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou
-
Blend
67% Cabernet Sauvignon
33% Merlot - Country France
- Region Bordeaux
- Appellation Saint-Julien
- UPC 0 15643 42430 4
Reviews
James Suckling 95
A nice, complex wine with notes of flowers, berries and leather in the nose. Full-bodied, with pure fruit that turns from light raspberry to cherry jam. This is balanced and silky, a beautiful harmony. Give this some time if you can.
by JS, James Suckling , 2012
Vinous Media 94
(contains a relatively high percentage of merlot, in the range of 30%) Good deep ruby-red. Wonderfully sweet, aromatic nose combines currant, chocolate and cedary oak. Fat, lush and silky, with atypical volume to the flavors of plum, tobacco and chocolate. Wonderfully supple, plump wine with layers of flavor, thoroughly sweet tannins and compelling aromatic persistence. Today the wine's substantial baby fat is masking its impressive underlying power.
by ST, Vinous Media , 2008
Wine Advocate 97
The 2005 Ducru Beaucaillou is a 10,000-case blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon and 33% Merlot (they used to produce 18,000-20,000 cases). It is an exceptionally powerful wine with a dense purple color, superb intensity, and a beautiful, sweet nose of spring flowers, raspberries, blueberries, graphite, and creme de cassis. Full-bodied with fabulous concentration, exceptionally high tannin, good acidity, and massive layers of richness that build incrementally on the palate, this monumental effort is more structured than their outstanding 2003. It may be the finest wine produced at this estate since the 1982 and 1961 Ducrus.
by RP, Wine Advocate , 2008
Wine Enthusiast 94-96
Huge blackcurrant fruits dominate a wine that is powerful and showing very ripe. There are flavors of smoky, balanced tannins, bitter cherries, black figs. As all the great wines in 2005, it finishes with a delicious lift of acidity.
by RV, Wine Enthusiast , 2006
Wine Spectator 95
Aromas of blackberry, currant and toasty oak, with a hint of spice, lead to a full-bodied palate, with plenty of blackberry, chocolate and Indian spices. Balanced, refined and very pretty, with a velvety texture and a long, beautifully textured finish. Best after 2013. 10,000 cases made.
by JS, Wine Spectator , 2008
Technical Details
Vintage
The 2005 vintage was characterised by an exceptional climate, particularly in the summer:It was:
Very sunny, with almost 2,000 hours of sunshine from May to September, which was 7.5% above average.
Hot but not scorching: 2°C above average, similar to 2000, and 2°C lower than in 2003, and overall with colder nights.
Excessively dry. Rainfall was 45% lower than the yearly average and there was a water shortage of 350 mm in the summer. It was, in fact much drier than in 2000 and 2003. With an exceptional climate come exceptional grapes. These ideal conditions, particularly the drought, which came to a head after 3 successive years of below average rainfall, had several consequences:
Very early, just before ripening, the vines concentrated wholly on maturing the grapes
Vine diseases and parasites were severely curbed
The grapes were 20% smaller than average, which intensified concentration
Forced to develop their root network to find the water needed, the vines also extracted extra nutrients