Every grand estate has a hidden spot with a story yet to be told. At Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, this is a small jetty by the river, reached via an unassuming path lined with trees and wild crocuses. 150 years ago, this was the route taken by high society, arriving by boat from Bordeaux, to reach the château. Its owner at the time, Nathaniel Johnston, had married into wealth and had made his mark both as a merchant and a politician. His second wife, Princess Marie Caradja, came from the Greek-Romanian aristocracy and was the daughter of the Turkish ambassador to The Hague and Berlin – the setting, with its jetty, may well have reminded her of the Istanbul villas on the banks of the Bosphorus.
A glorious past
Back then, Ducru-Beaucaillou was très chic and a meeting place for tout le monde. Nathaniel Johnston did everything he could to give the château – which sits majestically halfway up a mighty gravel escarpment overlooking the Gironde – an exotic and enchanting air: He extended the north and south wings with two imposing towers, planted exotic flowers and trees, and gave his labels the colour ‘Imperial Yellow’ – the golden-orange hue of the Chinese emperors – a trademark that was to remain unique in the Bordeaux region for more than a century. After Johnston’s son Edward died in 1890 when his sailing boat collided with a steamship within sight of the château, things became noticeably quieter on the riverbank. Today, a metre-high, weathered stone cross stands near the now largely abandoned jetty. The château’s second wine, La Croix de Beaucaillou, is named after him.
Looking back at history can be paralysing or, conversely, energising. For Bruno-Eugène Borie, the current owner of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, the matter is clear. As the youngest of three siblings, he grew up at the château and can tell a story about every room and every piece of furniture. He recalls the lunches shared by three generations, served by the German chef Hermann in the dining room – which had previously been the billiard room – and remembers that, back then, there was no air conditioning, so the children lived in the north wing in summer and the south wing in winter. Above all, however, having played as a child in the vineyards and on the alluvial plains of the Gironde, the nature of this region has left an indelible mark on him: “When I smell the rain, I can picture the mushrooms in the forest and the mildew in the vineyard. I have a seventh sense for this land. At the sight of the morning sun, I know instantly what the day will be like. Ducru is inside me; its wine flows through my veins.”
“When I smell the rain, I can picture the mushrooms in the forest and the mildew in the vineyard. I have a sixth sense for this land. At the sight of the morning sun, I know instantly what the day will be like. Ducru is inside me; its wine flows through my veins.”
Bruno-Eugène Borie
From France to the USA and back again
In 1972, at the tender age of 16, Bruno Borie was, so to speak, thrown out of the nest by his father. His father sent him to California, where the wine industry was in the process of reinventing itself – for the young Borie, an almost intoxicating experience of open-mindedness and freedom. The USA held a firm grip on him. After studying economics, he began working in 1981 for the Bordeaux négociant P.A. Sichel as export director in New York, where he developed a passionate interest in contemporary art. One day, whilst in a bar in Manhattan, Borie came across an unusual wine-based aperitif that originated from Podensac, not far from Bordeaux. In 1985, Borie, together with a number of partners, took over the virtually bankrupt Lillet company and became its managing director. A new recipe – less sweet and bitter –, improved distribution and innovative marketing brought success back to the company. Then, in 1995, his father contacted him: could he perhaps help him and his older brother François-Xavier with the family’s wine estates?
The Bories’ estates had by then grown into a small empire. The family originally hailed from Meymac in Corrèze. Many wine merchants came from this region in south-western France to the Bordelais via the Dordogne, most of whom lived in Libourne on the right bank of the Garonne. Around 1870, the Bories were almost the only ones to have ventured onto the left bank. In 1900, the brothers Francis and Marcel Borie bought their first estate, Château Caronne Sainte Gemme in Saint-Laurent, followed in 1932 by the far more significant Château Batailley in Pauillac. Seven years later, the brothers went their separate ways in business; Batailley was divided, and Francis took over the resulting Château Haut-Batailley. In 1942, he received a plea for help from Fernand Desbarats, another Bordeaux négociant: Desbarats had fallen out with his son-in-law and now needed a successor for Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. This was, however, on a completely different scale to Château Batailley.
A vineyard with 300 years of history
The estate had emerged in 1665 from the lands of the Baron of Beychevelle, which had been divided up due to his gambling debts, and was initially called Maucaillou – meaning ‘bad pebbles’ – because no grain would grow on the stony soil. In 1720, through the marriage of Marie Dejean, the estate passed into the ownership of her husband, Jacques de Bergeron, and it was on this occasion that the wine was first mentioned in official records – which is why the château celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2020. Around 1760, the wine was sold for the first time under the name Beaucaillou: by then, people had realised the value of the particularly large pebbles from the Günz Glacial Period found on this site for irrigating the vines and storing heat. In 1795, the new owner, Bertrand Ducru, attached his name to the estate, and his daughter and son-in-law subsequently improved the quality of the wine to such an extent that their château was declared a Deuxième Grand Cru Classé in 1855.
In 1866, however, the estate had to be sold to Lucie-Caroline Dassier, the first wife of the wine merchant Nathaniel Johnston, who added social glamour to the quality of the wine. Poor harvests, Prohibition in the USA and the Great Depression forced another sale in 1929, but the Desbarats family of wine merchants also lacked the necessary fortune. Francis Borie was only able to take over their château by undertaking to pay a life annuity to the previous owner. It was not until the early 1960s that his son Jean-Eugène became the sole owner, whereupon he withdrew from the wine trading business and devoted himself exclusively to viticulture.
Ducru-Beaucaillou and the Borie family
The first few years after the purchase were tough, but the Bories were aided by their collaboration with a young scientist who was just beginning to revolutionise oenology: Émile Peynaud. Improved hygiene, later harvests and, above all, pioneering work in the consistent use of malolactic fermentation – that is, the conversion of malic acid to lactic acid – resulted in a number of great vintages from 1953 onwards. The estate soon gained a reputation for which the term ‘Super Second’ was later coined. The family expanded: through the marriage of Jean-Eugène Borie to Monique Rochette, Château Ducluzeau in Listrac was added to the portfolio; in 1970, 32 hectares were acquired from the neighbouring Château Lagrange and, rather than incorporating them into Ducru-Beaucaillou, they were launched as the future Cru Bourgeois, Château Lalande-Borie. In 1978, Jean-Eugène Borie bought Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste in Pauillac, classified as a Cinquième Cru, which he then handed over to his eldest son, François-Xavier.
The family’s request for Bruno Borie’s support was based on two reasons: Firstly, his father, who was still managing Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, was now 74 years old; secondly, there were serious problems with TCA contamination – known as ‘cork taint’ – which had been affecting wines since the mid-1980s. Bruno, who was still in the midst of relaunching Lillet, agreed to help and lent a hand at the weekends. The Bories developed a second wine, decided to completely refurbish all the barrels and to build a new fermentation cellar and barrel store. Later, all vintages from 1950 to 1990 were checked bottle by bottle (!) from the cellar’s treasure trove and recorked using a specially developed sterile procedure. The 54-millimetre-long corks, which the estate has been using since 2003, are of the very highest quality. Bruno Borie recalls that the crisis served as a wake-up call for the estate: “We introduced new techniques, a new management team and new practices. From then on, every morning began with a meeting; we harvested even later and treated each plot individually. Our entire approach became much more focused.”
Taking decisive action
In 1998, his father Jean-Eugène died, and following an interim period during which François-Xavier also managed Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, Bruno Borie took over the running of the estate in 2003 – alongside that of Lillet, which he did not sell to Pernod Ricard until 2008. Right from the start, the new châtelain took decisive action: the Grand Vin was now aged entirely in new oak for 18 months, rather than the previous 12. Far more significant was the restructuring of the vineyards and the balance between the first and second wines. In addition to the historic plots surrounding the château, Château Ducru-Beaucaillou owns a vineyard a little further inland in the Saint-Julien appellation, south of the little river La Mouline. The harvest from this vineyard used to be incorporated into the Grand Vin, which had resulted in a substantial output of up to 24,000 cases a year; since 2005, it has mainly been used for the second wine, La Croix de Beaucaillou. A stricter selection process in the vineyard further reduced yields, meaning that overall production continued to fall. Today, only 5,000 to 7,000 cases of the first wine are generally produced; in 2021, the figure was just 4,500.
Above all, however, Bruno Borie realised just how crucial Cabernet Sauvignon would be to the blend of the first wine, given the gravelly soils up to 20 metres high. When he started out, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot were still planted in single-varietal plots; moreover, his father had planted a high proportion of Merlot in the cool late 1950s to avoid having to chaptalise. By then, however, temperatures had risen, and the Cabernet Sauvignon demonstrated its unrivalled class at Ducru. Today it dominates the cuvée, accounting for 80 to 90 per cent in most years – and in the extreme case of 2021, as much as 98 per cent – with Merlot making up only the small remainder. “In 2003, I broke with all conventions,” recalls Bruno Borie, “there was no longer a tried-and-tested path from the past. Back then, for example, everything was organised around the French calendar, with the school holidays starting on 1 August. But there’s a lot to do that month, so we did things differently. All of this meant that, at Ducru-Beaucaillou, we were able to enter something of a golden age with the 2009 vintage.”
Wine critic Robert Parker’s perfect score of 100 points for the 2009 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou served less as validation for Bruno Borie than as an incentive to go a few steps further: “I love upheaval and change, in viticulture as in art. I have a very positive relationship with modernity.” In 2016 and 2017, he restructured his team; instead of one Technical Director, there are now two: Emmanuel Bonneau is in charge of operations, whilst Cécile Dupuis is responsible for quality assurance, research and development, and new projects. They are joined by oenological consultant Éric Boissenot, whose father Jacques – a pupil of Émile Peynaud – had previously worked for the Borie family. Bruno Borie is convinced that a two-person management team is necessary, “because we have to be there for the wine 24 hours a day, twelve months a year. And we need a much greater presence in the vineyard. Today, we work in harmony with nature in every situation; we protect the vines against the cold, the heat and all manner of diseases. I simply want to produce the very best possible wine at Ducru every year.”
Work in the vineyard
Today, the estate in the commune of Saint-Julien covers 245 hectares. Of the 105 hectares of vineyards, 90 are currently under cultivation, which corresponds to a good twelve per cent of the appellation’s vineyard area and makes Ducru-Beaucaillou the second-largest producer there; in addition, there are 54 hectares in the Haut-Médoc. The vines are on average 35 years old and are planted very densely at 10,000 vines per hectare – this intense competition drives the roots deep into the ground in search of groundwater. Healthier vineyards and more sustainable production methods are key objectives for the two-person management team. The estate has been certified for sustainability since 2017, and the transition to organic farming was initiated the following year. However, based on the experience of recent years, this is not intended to lead to certification. The aim is to remain flexible in the face of threats such as flavescence dorée, and it is considered more sensible to apply a systemic treatment in the event of severe powdery mildew than to repeatedly contaminate the soil with heavy metals.
Furthermore, methods such as phytotherapy, UV-C irradiation and pheromones are used in the vineyard, whilst lightweight robots are employed to minimise soil compaction. New plantings, preceded by five years of soil remediation, also play a major role. Naturally, Ducru-Beaucaillou benefits from its outstanding location, particularly in poor vintages: The perfect drainage provided by the gravelly soil and the air circulation thanks to the proximity to the river produce those wines with exuberant fruit and a refined bouquet for which the château is famous. However, Cécile Dupuis and Emmanuel Bonneau are now gaining an ever-better understanding of the individual micro-terroirs and aim to find the optimal combination of grape variety, clone and rootstock for every patch of land.
This is aided not least by a genetically diverse ‘Heritage Vineyard’, featuring offspring of Ducru’s finest vines obtained through mass selection. Dupuis is currently working on a grafting method that is ideal for Cabernet Sauvignon. “I try everywhere,” she says, describing her role, “to provide my colleagues with new tools to improve quality even further – in the vineyard, in the cellar, with the machinery, during construction work, and in packaging. This is also in response to new challenges such as climate change. Things can go wrong, of course, but we have to pursue solutions over the long term.” Emmanuel Bonneau adds: “We won’t know whether we’re doing the right thing until ten years have passed. But we’re already seeing that the soils are healthier and more vibrant, and the wine’s fruit is becoming even more precise.”
A new cuverie
The construction of the new cellar, another major project, began in 2023 and is due to be completed in 2026. In accordance with the building authority’s requirements, the current barrel cellar, built in 2000, must be integrated into the new structure. The space will be expanded fivefold – across several levels – to enable work to be carried out using gravity rather than mechanical pumping, and to allow all the estate’s Saint-Julien wines to be matured in one place. Even today, of course, many of the processes in the cellar are state of the art. For instance, the delivered grapes pass through three optical sorters, and since 2021 the Grand Vin has been matured in 14 conical wooden tanks, known as ‘Smart Vats’. These automatically carry out numerous tasks, such as gentle pumping over with continuous oxygen monitoring 24 hours a day, whilst storing and analysing all relevant data, such as must concentration and sugar and tannin levels. Cellar work is thus characterised by the use of big data, but solely in the service of precision; this ensures that each separately vinified plot develops a precise profile over the years, which can then be accurately refined. The wine is subsequently aged in new, lightly to medium-toasted barriques, mostly made from Tronçais oak, whose various coopers are required to subject the staves to a long ageing process.
The tasting
Whilst production has become so enormously complex, Bruno Borie significantly reduced the product range in 2018. The Cru Bourgeois wines Lalande-Borie, Fourcas-Borie and Ducluzeau were discontinued; instead, the entry-level wine is now the Madame de Beaucaillou from the Haut-Médoc. Above this, three wines from the Saint-Julien appellation have been positioned: Le Petit Ducru, La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou and, finally, the Grand Vin Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, which accounts for just over a quarter of the estate’s own production from Saint-Julien. In the tasting, the ‘smaller’ wines come across as remarkably firm and classic, despite their high Merlot content. Indeed, it is part of the estate’s philosophy to harvest the Merlot when ripe, but not overripe. Even in hot years, the aim is to produce structured wines that pair well with food and whose provenance is evident. The quality of the 2019 La Croix is particularly impressive and invites comparisons with older vintages of the estate’s flagship wine.
Its vertical tasting, featuring the 2005, 2010, 2016 and 2019 vintages, showcases a selection of Bruno Borie’s finest achievements as owner of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. The 2005 vintage, which Borie recalls as the epitome of a perfect vintage with grapes straight out of an ampelographic textbook, captivates with tertiary notes such as cedarwood and leather; with its firm structure and still pronounced tannins, it embodies, as it were, the old school of Bordeaux. The 2010, one of the greatest successes in the estate’s recent history, is, by contrast, the antithesis of the many acid- and tannin-heavy wines that the year produced elsewhere: despite its complexity, it is very well-balanced and, thanks to masterful phenolic management, is already within its drinking window.
The 2016 vintage is also ready to drink, yet despite its richness, it is currently recognisably in a deep slumber. As taut and muscular as it is, it currently offers only a hint of the wonderful fruit of this classic vintage. The 2019 is regarded at the estate as the epitome of the new era. The definition of its expression compared with earlier years is akin to that of an HDTV picture in contrast to the sepia tones of old photographs. One could reflect on this comparison for just as long as on the wine itself, for despite its enormous concentration and explosive fruit, it remains clear and fresh on the palate. It possesses everything that defines the classic Grands Crus of Bordeaux – the graphite, the black fruits, the internal structure – but in a new, almost dramatically immediate way.
Bordeaux’s ‘bad boy’?
In this way, the wine reflects its owner. Bruno-Eugène Borie is regarded by many as Bordeaux’s ‘bad boy’. He commissioned Jade Jagger, the rock star’s daughter, to design new labels, and since the 2020 refurbishment by Sarah Poniatowski, the interior décor of his château has resembled a modern art and design gallery. In 2019, he announced via YouTube that he intended to cease wine production in favour of grape soft-serve ice cream – it was 1 April.
At the same time, Bruno Borie is one of the few owners of a Grand Cru Classé who lives at his château with his family, and he has the utmost respect for his Gascon heritage. Unlike many of his colleagues, he cannot imagine investing outside the region. With a superb kitchen at his disposal and as a knowledgeable gourmet himself, Borie is an exceptionally generous host and a brilliant conversationalist. When asked about rising wine prices, he replies: “Of course the business is profitable. But it is only this profitability that allows us to produce at the very highest level, and we are very strict about that. The commitment to the highest quality guides every decision we make.”
Note
The article first appeared, together with the magnificent photographs by Johannes Grau – which cannot be reproduced here for copyright reasons – in FINE – Das Weinmagazin 2/2023
Image credits
Illustration in the second paragraph: Château Ducru-Beaucaillou archive
All photographs: Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
