1998 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou

Community Tasting Notes (186) Avg Score: 92.2 points

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  4/18/2024 - djhammond Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Consistent with my note from 15 months ago,, I do feel ths is just entering the later stages of its prime drinking window. Blueberry and bell pepper are prominent, with a deeply aromatic nose and decent balance and depth on the palate. As noted last time, as the fruit has faded, the finish has been compromised, and is a little astringent. Minimal decanting is needed.

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  3/6/2024 - Cailles wrote: 93 Points

  At 26 years, the structure has softened and the wine shows a beautiful balance. It has not the depth of great vintages, but is a lot of pleasure to drink. A bottle from the same cellar two years ago, was at ipeak and full of tertiary aromas, this bottle showed quite a bit younger. A very good but not exceptional vintage for Ducru Beaucaillou.
  
  TN: The bouquet was slightly subdued and not very well delineated, the magic happened on the palate. Expressive and intense with lots of graphite minerality at the core, red and dark berries, some herbs to complement. Almost no tertiary aromas yet and only medium complexity/precision. Quite classic Bordeaux, with a touch of
  
  Decanting: Decanted for roughly one hour, which seemed ideal.

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  3/1/2024 - egoya wrote: 90 Points

  A famous chateau and, to me, in this case a big disappointment. Not much fruit, very much less elegant than I expected. My guess is that this wine has already declined, but since it is at present not much fun to drink I will keep my remaining bottle just to see what happens in a few years. Glad that I only paid 37 Euro for a bottle more than 2 decades ago.

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  2/5/2024 - sirpat00 wrote: 93 Points

  Tasted blind. Sweet core of red cherry, graphite and pencil shavings minerality. Dried flowers. Delicate aging notes of dry leather and mushrooms. A detailed and layered, highly appealing nose. The palate was not quite holding up, however. The structure couldn‘t quite offset the remnant acidity. Thinning out into the finish. This is probably in the back half of its drinking window now.

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  1/7/2024 - Chrysostomus Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Typical aromas of a matured left-bank-Bdx. Gave it 3 hours of air in the bottle. Fruit has disappeared, tertiary aromas of wet earth, mushrooms, cedar. Good melted tannin-structure. Long finish. Good wine but not the best Quality/Price-Range. I think that it won't improve over but will be at this stage for the next decade. Drink or hold!

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