2019 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou La Croix de Beaucaillou

The wines of La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou come from the vineyard of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. This exceptional terroir of the Médoc is located between the Gironde river in the east, the center and the west of the Saint-Julien appellation. The estate owes its name to its "beautiful pebbles" ("beaux cailloux", in French) which, due to their high quartz content, create soils that are poor in nutrients for plants.

It is precisely this "agrological" scarcity, as the late Bordeaux professor and geographer René Pijassou described it, that makes them so suitable for the production of good wine. In the east, the plots are planted along the rolling Médoc ridges, just above the estuary, while those in the epicentre benefit from a microclimate fed by the small stream of La Mouline that meanders through the centre of the appellation from west to east before disappearing into the Gironde.

La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou is a fine wine that perfectly expresses its exceptional terroir. This is not a second wine as such, because it comes from a dedicated part of the vineyard, located on the south bank of La Mouline. La Croix de Beaucaillou 2018 is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, to mature for 12 months in 60% new barriques. It has a pH of 3.75, 15% alcohol. Deep garnet-purple in color it is in the glass and on the nose it still needs to open up a little but with some time and oxygen this great St Julien opens up very elegantly with subtle notes of fertile clay soil, tobacco, truffles with a core of crème de cassis, blackberry compote and blueberries with hints of undergrowth and bay leaves. Full, rich and seductive on the palate, with firm, round tannins and enough freshness to give the dense fruit a long finish. Powerful, silky, very aromatic, La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou seduces with its bouquet, its balance, its remarkable finesse and its long finish. A great cuvée that awakens and then awakens the senses; it is the perfect introduction to the Borie signature.