René Gabriel
00: Barrel sample (18/20): noble bouquet threaded with fine oak and herbs, accompanied by the classic Ducru notes of plum and cedar, with a hint of cinnamon. Delicate palate with sweet, dense tannins, generous extract, fine light vanilla note, toasted bread. Needs a good ten years and will then give great pleasure as a particularly elegant Ducru. 02: Dark garnet, pronounced watery rim. Delicate Damassine plum bouquet, Dominican tobacco, multi-layered, almost tender on the nose. Light, elegant palate, yet supporting, maturity-seeking tannins gradually appear, forming a clear astringency. Underestimated by its color. An aristocratic wine that will only reach its true drinking window from 2010. May then gain a point again (as at the barrel sample) (17/20). In magnum, it showed its best side in Ste. Maxime in May 2006 – even though it was still far from optimal maturity. Lots of extract sweetness, elegant, delicate marzipan note in the extract. (18/20). 06: At the primeur event in Basel, from standard bottles with slight brett notes, so better to wait. 07: Again from the same cellar, this time drunk in the south of France. At first a bit muted (brett notes again!), then it gained on an elegant base. We left about 200 ml in the decanter, put it in the cool cellar and drank the rest after 24 hours; it was then clean, elegant and silky – pure Ducru. (18/20). 08: The color shows maturity with brick-red nuances at the rim, still a sparkling garnet inside. Open bouquet, gamey nuances, chicken broth, glutamate and overripe plums, earthy sheen underneath, surprisingly mature on the nose. Elegant, easy-drinking palate, soft tannins, plush malty extract, soft acidity, still discreetly firm inside, but it needs this backbone for the few remaining years of pleasure it will offer. If you don’t drink it now, you may miss its best moment. One hour of decanting and the initially tricky aromas are almost gone. Nevertheless, it has lost something compared to earlier impressions. Tasted in September at Ducru over dinner. Long decant, but still not quite in the sweet spot. A week later in Ste. Maxime it was softer, friendlier and better. (18/20). 09: Fairly full bouquet, first chocolate tones indicating some nose maturity, discreet caramel and red cherries. A bit mealy on the tongue and the fruit shows red compote, not fully ripe pips with a peppery touch. Good Ducru at first maturity with 20 years of guaranteed pleasure. (17/20). 13: When I otherwise write about red plums, these are usually hints of skin under-ripeness. And that may have been the case in the early years for this Ducru. But it seems a bit too many new barriques were purchased at the time, and so the half-creamy sweetness now brings a nice aromatic compromise to this now elegant, finely matured wine. Ducru is anyway (like Latour and Haut-Brion) known for surprisingly good bad-weather variants. This wine – enjoyed here from magnum – now gives a lot of pleasure as a finely balanced Saint-Julien!
DeliveryFree standard delivery from £ 250 purchase
Guaranteed provenanceWines sourced directly from the producing estates
