Ducru Beaucaillou - Saint-Julien 2011

Ducru Beaucaillou - Saint-Julien 2011

Ducru-Beaucaillou, love of the land and hedonism

For 300 years, six families have nurtured an indelible bond with Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. They are forever captives of this prestigious estate; the Desjean, Bergeron, Ducru, Johnston, Desbarat, or finally the Borie's families were never short of praise for it. Today, the resident owner Bruno-Eugène Borie, 3rd generation at the helm of the estate, cultivates the lands of this 2nd Classified Growth in 1855 and his French art of living with passion and rigour.

Château Ducru-Beaucaillou owes its name to its "beautiful pebbles" ("beaux Cailloux", in French) that geologists refer to less romantically as Günzian gravel. These quartz pebbles were deposited by the Gironde estuary at the beginning of the early Quaternary period, some two million years ago. These Günzian gravels make soils that are poor in plant nutrients. But it is their very agrological paucity that guarantees the qualitative excellence of the wines. A choice of nature.

Another privilege of the Château Ducru-Beaucaillou terroir: its proximity to the Gironde estuary, the largest in Europe at 635 km2 and here more than three kilometres wide. On this exceptional site, the four daily tides stir up large bodies of water, mitigating harsh winters, moderating summer heatwaves, deflecting hail trajectories, and promoting good respiration.