Lower Your Sails Again:
Beychevelle 1905-2015

BY NEAL MARTIN | JANUARY 14, 2025I begin with an apology. After detailing the puerile teenage ritual of
“mooning” in the introduction of my <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/lower-your-sails-or-breeches-beychevelle-1929-2019-mar-2023">2023
article</a>&nbsp;on Château Beychevelle,&nbsp;I received one or two messages from shocked
readers who could not understand why one would want to do that. I have no idea.
We all do idiotic things when we’re kids. Thankfully, nobody was showing their derrière
when the estate hosted a splendid dinner to celebrate the 30th
harvest overseen by managing director Philippe Blanc. I had been planning to
journey down to Bordeaux the following week, but when advised that the vintages
were worth altering my schedule, I tweaked my itinerary. In the end, this
tasting stretched back almost 120 years and featured a vintage I had never
encountered in my career. Vintages were selected numerically, that is to say, all
those ending in “five,” unless the cellar had no bottles, in which case,
alternatives were chosen (such as 1964 and 1921).<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1736869517707-Vinous_beychevelle+bottles.jpg">I am not going to retread the history of the château, nor the winemaking, since this was detailed in my previous article. Here are a few takeaways from the tasting.Firstly, perhaps their second wine, Amiral de Beychevelle, is underrated? I was pleasantly surprised how well the 2005 and 2010 showed, and they were actually superior to some of the off-vintage Grand Vins. Secondly, the&nbsp;2015 Beychevelle&nbsp;is a benchmark modern-day vintage for Saint-Julien, where quality became more consistent. I thoroughly enjoyed the&nbsp;2005 Beychevelle, however, it is interesting to compare the two side-by-side—the 2015 is imbued with more finesse and finer tannins, indicative of more precise viticulture and vinification. The older vintages come from an era when Beychevelle was not firing on all cylinders. The&nbsp;1985 Beychevelle&nbsp;failed to pass muster. It felt completely disjointed, with a dominant veneer of oak and an ill-fitting Rhône-like finish. I actually preferred the&nbsp;1975, a vintage that yielded tough wines on the Left Bank with a hardness that never really disappeared. The&nbsp;1964 Beychevelle&nbsp;derives from a vintage when rain affected the harvest in the Médoc, and it comes across as slightly hollow and heavily chaptalized.Annoyingly, I think the&nbsp;1955 Beychevelle&nbsp;is a great wine, but an element of TCA in this bottle spun it off course. I’d love to try an untainted bottle. The&nbsp;1945 Beychevelle&nbsp;is a solid contribution to this legendary vintage. Its wines tend to be haloed, but in reality, we forget that many Bordeaux estates were recovering—not just from six years of tumultuous war, but from a lack of investment that stretched back to the 1920s. The 1945 is a rather conservative Saint-Julien, and I have a sneaky suspicion that another bottle might show better. I had high hopes for the&nbsp;1934 Beychevelle,&nbsp;but after an initial burst, it seemed to deflate, and I kept readjusting my score downwards. Before you argue that this should be expected given its age, step forward the&nbsp;1921 Beychevelle. Wow. This was fabulous, initially overshadowed by the ’34, but it blossomed in the glass. Pure and sensual, the 1921&nbsp;is a wine that must have been amazingly concentrated in its youth, but as a centurion, it proves once again that nothing compares to mature claret with age.The two oldest wines were fascinating. The&nbsp;1915 Beychevelle&nbsp;comes from a vintage that I presumed I would never encounter. Even the great Michael Broadbent does not contribute a single note to a vintage that, to quote the man himself, “suffered every conceivable problem.” That’s just the weather, let alone bloodshed in the trenches. As someone who is fascinated by off-vintages and their context, it was a privilege to taste something so rare. Quality was moot, though it was by no means undrinkable. It was as if this bottle had held on to life so that it could reach this evening 109 years later and prove that it existed before expiring.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1736869633032-Vinous_beychevelle+bottles2.jpg">The final bottle was the 1905 Beychevelle, poured blind. I got
the impression that the Beychevelle team thought it was a great vintage,
whereas, in fact, it was regarded as an average season, certainly nothing close
to the caliber of the 1900. I had only ever tasted a frail 1905 Lafite
Rothschild before…but this was a superior bottle. It was the inverse of the 1934,
initially a little rustic and lightweight, the 1905 gained weight and
clarity in the glass, revealing hidden fruit and complexity. Rising phoenix-like
after 119 years, this was an awesome Saint-Julien.Final Thoughts







































This was a memorable dinner. The chronological instead of qualitative
theme made it feel like a bona fide voyage through time. It proved the quality
of Beychevelle as one of the standout wines in Saint-Julien and, by the same token,
that it languished behind its peers until two crucial events: the appointment
of Philippe Blanc and the installation of their new winery that incepted with
the 2016 vintage. Both underly its consistency over the last decade. I suppose
the real takeaway, the most awe-inspiring part about the vertical, is that it
was bookended by two startling wines, the 2015 and the 1905. All that lay
between them is 110 years.&nbsp;© 2025 Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.<div><hr> You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/bordeaux-2020-the-southwold-tasting-nov-2024">Bordeaux 2020 – The Southwold Tasting</a>, Neal Martin, November 2024<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/test-of-endurance-bordeaux-2014-ten-years-on-mar-2024">Test of Endurance: Bordeaux 2014 Ten Years On</a>, Neal Martin, March 2024<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/lower-your-sails-or-breeches-beychevelle-1929-2019-mar-2023">Lower Your Sails (Or Breeches): Beychevelle 1929-2019</a>, Neal Martin, March 2023<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/bordeaux-2019-the-southwold-tasting-feb-2023">Bordeaux 2019: The Southwold Tasting</a>, Neal Martin, February 2023 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/thrice-is-nice-bordeaux-2020-in-bottle-feb-2023">Thrice Is Nice: Bordeaux 2020 in Bottle</a>, Neal Martin, February 2023<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/cleaning-out-the-cupboard-bordeaux-1943-2020-jan-2023">Cleaning Out the Cupboard: Bordeaux 1943-2020</a>, Neal Martin, January 2023</div><a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/lower-your-sails-or-breeches-beychevelle-1929-2019-mar-2023">Lower Your Sails (Or Breeches): Beychevelle 1929-2019</a>, Neal Martin, January 2023

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