1976 Ducru Beaucaillou
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Tasting notes
The 1976 Ducru-Beaucaillou is a wine that had to fight against the severe drought conditions that year plus non-stop rain from 11 to 15 September. This bottle is not quite as fresh on the nose as the one I had five years earlier, a little smudged and bretty, lacking clarity and focus. The palate is medium-bodied with furry tannins, fine weight and cohesion and actually showing some redeeming delineation on the cedar and tobacco tinged finish. No, not a complete write-off, although I would check provenance if opening a bottle now. Tasted at the Ducru Beaucaillou vertical at the château.
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Average Score
Neal Martin
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
Tasted blind in Bordeaux, the 1976 Ducru Beaucaillou seems to be in gentle, respectable decline. Here there are attractive, loose-knit red berry and cold black tea scents on the nose, the warmth from that summer still evident and somehow, comforting, perhaps compensating for its lack of complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with mushroom and a curious tang of licorice allsorts! It is not dissimilar to the magnum served at the property in 2011, although I think in bottle it is just a few steps further along its drinking plateau. Larger formats should still hold pleasure, but bottles should be consumed in the not too distant future. Tasted April 2016.
Tasted blind in Bordeaux, the 1976 Ducru Beaucaillou seems to be in gentle, respectable decline. Here there are attractive, loose-knit red berry and cold black tea scents on the nose, the warmth from that summer still evident and somehow, comforting, perhaps compensating for its lack of complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with mushroom and a curious tang of licorice allsorts! It is not dissimilar to the magnum served at the property in 2011, although I think in bottle it is just a few steps further along its drinking plateau. Larger formats should still hold pleasure, but bottles should be consumed in the not too distant future. Tasted April 2016. Jul 2016, www.robertparker.com
About the producer
Second Growth estate Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou in Saint-Julien is one of the Super Seconds, an elite group of properties producing wines that regularly compete with the finest in the Médoc.