June 17, 2021, Bordeaux, France – Acclaimed Second Growth Château Ducru-Beaucaillou in Saint-Julien celebrates 300 years of exceptional winemaking with its 2020 vintage, marked by an exclusive commemorative label. The ideal conditions of 2020 yielded perfectly ripe and concentrated fruit, albeit with limited volumes, enabling the new technical team to produce wines that are garnering high praises across the globe. To commemorate the Château’s tercentenary, visionary owner Bruno-Eugène Borie commissioned a one-time label, combining the classic and the contemporary, to adorn these fine and rare bottles. The wines will be sold as futures this month in extremely limited quantities.
A One-Time, Rare Label Created Exclusively for 2020
To celebrate its tercentenary, Ducru-Beaucaillou has reinvented its historic label: an elegant and sophisticated creation, resolutely modern, daringly disruptive, which nevertheless shows allegiance to the past and to the property’s centuries-old values.
“For us, the creation of an ephemeral label designed for Château Ducru-Beaucaillou’s three hundredth vintage had to be seen as an event in and of itself. It was inspired by a kind of poetic rebirth of Ducru-Beaucaillou’s legendary label, which had remained unchanged since its creation by the Johnstons in 1870. This new design recalls major art movements and techniques of the twentieth century: abstract art, collage, destructured forms, and new realism,” says Owner Bruno-Eugène Borie, a passionate enthusiast for contemporary art.
The 2020 Ducru-Beaucaillou will also feature the tercentenary logo, refined and modern, in orange enameled characters on the shoulder of the bottle which will be topped with an orange wax, the property’s signature color, embossed with the Château’s logo.
300 Years of Inspiration for this Rising Star
Since 1720, six families have nurtured an indelible bond with Ducru-Beaucaillou: Desjean, Bergeron, Ducru, Johnston, Desbarat de Burcke or Borie. With its privileged terroirs of Günzian gravel soils that rise from the Gironde estuary, the majestic Château Ducru-Beaucaillou has historically been one of the most revered châteaux of Bordeaux. This Grand Cru Classé of Saint Julien has belonged to the Borie family for almost 80 years. Bruno-Eugène is the third generation to oversee operations, taking the helm in 2003, and has raised the quality each vintage through his strive for excellence and visionary approach. Today, the Château is considered amongst the very top of Bordeaux.
New & Brilliant Technical Duo For A New Era and the 2020 Vintage
With the arrival in 2016 of a new technical team (headed by Emmanuel Bonneau), coupled with the addition of the R&D/Quality Department in 2019 (headed by Cécile Dupuis) for this 2020 vintage, Ducru-Beaucaillou has clearly entered a new era with wines that affirm the refined and unique style of the Château yet with even greater purity, precision, breadth, and depth.
Perfectly ripened fruit allied with a highly motivated and competent technical team and a visionary leader yielded exceptional wines for the tercentenary vintage. The wines are elegantly perfumed, with a voluptuous cashmere texture, exquisite freshness, precisely chiseled, succulent, and hugely persistent (Cellar Master Note, June 2021).
Beyond the remarkable quality, Bruno-Eugene Borie added, “the 2020 vintage offers another advantage to consumers, the unlimited capacity for ageing. The precision in the wine extends the drinking window, so that the wines can be enjoyed in their youth without compromising endless ageability.”
A Must-Have for Bordeaux Collectors and Aficionados
The wines of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou will be sold as futures through fine wine retailers across the US beginning this month. Due to small yields and drastic selection of only the best fruit, quantities are extremely limited. The wines will be carefully matured in casks in the Château cellars, for an exceptional period of 18 months and will be ready for shipping Spring 2023.
For more information about Ducru-Beaucaillou please visit our website https://chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en or Instagram and Facebook pages at @chateauducrubeaucaillou.
