2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou

"The biggest challenge in 2007 was the wide range of ripeness," said Bruno Borie, explaining that the flowering was dragged out for a month, whereas it's usually finished in 11 to 15 days. "It was necessary to do a big green harvest in August. We hired 75 people and had them go from plot to plot, cutting off all the pink berries and clusters-about 20% to 25% of the fruit. Then in mid-August we pulled off all the leaves in front of the clusters, keeping only the leaves at the top, because we had such a deficit of heat and light. Normally this step would give tough, unstable tannins, like we had in 2003; so we were lucky not to get burned grapes in 2007. In the end the grapes were perfectly ripe. You know, we are lucky to be in a position where we can afford to do things like this in our vines."

Bruno Borie emphasized that La Croix de Beaucaillou is Ducru's second wine and that Lalande-Borie is from another property entirely: 25 hectares of vines to the west of Ducru, near Talbot and Lagrange. Ducru comes mostly from gravelly soil around the chateau, "an estuary microclimate," while La Croix de Beaucaillou, which normally includes a higher percentage of merlot than Ducru, comes from another 35 hectares of vines across the road toward Langoa- and Leoville-Barton, where the soil is similar but the climate different. Since taking over here in 2003, Borie has updated and modernized this wine through a host of small improvements in the vines and in the winery, perhaps the most important of which has been more precise harvesting and stricter selection. The work in the vineyard was especially critical in 2006, with all possible steps taken to ensure ripe, clean grapes at the time of harvest. As Borie put it, "the sorting table is the last step before you hang yourself." The aristocratic 2006 has an IPT of 80 and alcohol of 13.2%.

Whereas most chateau proprietors of the Northern Medoc indicated a preference for their cabernet sauvignon, and many of the best 2005s from this region feature a lower-than-usual percentage of merlot, Bruno Borie expressed the opinion that "the merlot was great" and made the decision to keep nearly all of it, as he felt it brought charm, power and elegance. In fact, he explained, "in 2005 our cabernet fruit showed the softness and smoothness of merlot, while our merlot had the structure of cabernet." The 2005 Ducru blend includes an unusually high 33% merlot content and, not surprisingly, an elevated alcohol level of 13.5%. (One of my fellow tasters noted that Ducru was the only chateau he visited where the grand vin was higher in alcohol than the estate's second wine; at virtually every other property, by all reports, it was the superripe lots that were declassified.) The young wine was atypically glossy and fleshy for a young Ducru, and many early tasters whose paradigm for Ducru runs toward a more discreet, austere wine seemed not to know quite what to do about this sweeter, more modern-style vintage. Incidentally, thanks in part to the high percentage of merlot, the IPT in 2005 is 71, significantly less than the 80 registered in 2003. But the 2005 is very rich in anthocyanins, or coloring material, notes Borie.