100pts Jeb Dunnuck

Reminding me of the 2010 with its incredible stature and class (as opposed to the more opulently styled 2009), the 2016 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is a legendary wine from the genius of Bruno Borie, who has managed this estate brilliantly since he arrived in 2003. A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot brought up all in new oak, the 2016 has a mammoth bouquet of crème de cassis, espresso, camphor, crushed violets, toasty oak, and graphite. Full-bodied, concentrated, and backward on the palate, it nevertheless has perfectly integrated acidity and building tannins, a concentrated, layered texture, off-the-charts purity of fruit, and a finish that won't quit. Give this powerful, concentrated wine a solid 7-8 years of bottle age and enjoy it over the following 50 years or more.

99pts James Suckling

Super perfumed, attractive violets with a thread of fresh blueberries, cassis, blackberries and dark plums, delivering a very enticing impression. Beautiful ripeness here. The tannins are perfectly ripe and layers meld into each other, carrying deep, graceful and plush, velvety dark fruit long into the vibrant and seductive, chocolate-laced finish. Great potential.

98pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Very deep purple-black in color, the 2016 Ducru-Beaucaillou delivers a pronounced, enticing nose of baked plums, blueberry preserves, fruitcake and boysenberry with suggestions of lilacs, mocha, hoisin and exotic spices plus a waft of cedar chest. Full-bodied, rich and opulent in the mouth, the palate has layer upon layer of black fruit preserves and spicy nuances, matched by a very firm, grainy frame, finishing with epic length and depth.

98pts Vinous

The 2016 Ducru-Beaucaillou is an arrestingly beautiful wine. Powerful and sensual in the glass, the 2016 exudes remarkable concentration from start to finish. Red cherry fruit, pomegranate, blood orange, menthol and sweet tobacco all race across the palate. Vivid, sumptuous and impeccable in its balance, Ducru is one of the wines of the vintage in 2016. It has been unforgettable on both occasions I have tasted it from bottle so far. 

98pts Wine Enthusiast - Cellar Selection

This wine conveys density but its richness is sublimated by the complex structure and beautiful ripe fruit. Its power comes from the structure as much as the fruit, promising a wine with an immensely long life ahead of it. 

97pts Decanter

Bruno Borie and technical director Emmanuel Bonneau crafted this exquisite wine together in 2016. The nose is ripe but still stern, with oaky blackcurrant and blackberry. Very concentrated, but also velvety and succulent, it shows admirable tension, muscle and depth. Very youthful and chewy, but not extracted–and it retains that quintessential St-Julien finesse.

97pts Wine Spectator

Offers exotic, cashmere-textured, mocha-infused blackberry, cassis and plum puree flavors, with smoldering incense and warm fruitcake notes and a swath of plush yet serious grip too boot, showing ample depth and breath. As distinctive a Bordeaux as there is these days.

Tasting Notes

This is packed and stacked with tons of spiced red and black fruit, a long, thick
texture and super sweet tannins. Blackberry, wild raspberry, pencil lead and dark
chocolate are present in this huge and tensile wine of strength and focus.

About the Winery

Classified 2nd growth in 1855. Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is named after the beautiful, large stones found in its unique wine-growing terroir. The exceptional ecosystem produces fine, elegant, tasty wines, with a long finish - in short, archetypal Saint-Julien wines. Perched on an exceptional site with incomparable views over the Gironde estuary, in the centre 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 Medoc. Unusually for Bordeaux, it is built directly above the barrel cellars, enveloping its owners, who have lived here for over sixty years, in the sumptuous aromas of their wine. 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.