Ducru Beaucaillou 1961

I have been fortunate to taste the 1961 Ducru-Beaucaillou several times over 20 years, both blind and non-blind, at private dinners and at the château. It is a formidable 1961. This bottle has the vintage’s telltale chlorine tincture on the nose that is interwoven into the black fruit, peat and light cedar scents. It is extremely focused although not as vigorous as say, a decade ago. The palate is very well balanced with fine tannins, very saline in the mouth, full of tension and energy thank to its fine bead of acidity. As I remarked in my previous note, it is not a 1961 with a surfeit of finesse, but it has a dimension and gravitas that demands respect. Tasted at the Ducru Beaucaillou vertical at the château.

Pale to medium brown-brick colored, the 1961 Ducru-Beaucaillou springs from the glass with notes of kirsch, raspberry preserves and dried mulberries plus wafts of sandalwood, menthol, aniseed and dried roses with a hint of black truffles. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is laden with layers of dried red and black berries and tons of spice and floral sparks with a wonderfully plush texture and fantastically long, multilayered finish. A great bottle like this one satisfies all the style and quality expectations of a 1961, and then some. 2020 - 2046

I had drunk this vintage of Ducru only a couple of times in my life, with the last time being all the way back in 1997, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity again. It remains one of the greatest examples of this superb estate that I have ever tasted. This most recent showing was, if anything, even better than the bottle more than a quarter century ago, as it offers up a brilliant and utterly seamless bouquet of sweet cassis, black cherries, tobacco leaf, a gorgeously complex base of gravelly soil tones, cigar smoke, a touch of Latour-like sweet walnut tones and a discreet framing of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is sheer perfection: deep, pure, complex and utterly seamless, with a stunning core of fruit, great soil inflection and grip, still a wisp of backend tannins and an endless, very, very complex and beautiful finish. Pure magic, the ’61 Ducru still has decades of life ahead of it. (Drink between 2024-2065)