The 2011 Vintage:
A VERY HIGH-CLASS WINE!
Dedication & motivation of our teams, technical progress, economic prosperity,
are brought together in a very high class wine
Winter 2010-2011: This year again, winter was dry, one of the driest in the decade. The winter chill was indeed present from December to February... for the benefit of our ecosystem.
Spring 2010-2011: The sharp rise in temperature in March resulted in an early budding of the vines at the beginning of April. Then, Bordeaux enjoyed a quite exceptional spring from April to June, with a severe drought and historically high temperatures. We thus experienced 40 days with maximum temperatures exceeding 25°C and a heat wave (with temperatures of 37 to 39°C i.e. +/- 100°F) on the 26th and 27th of June.
At first, the spring conditions
• promoted a precocious growth cycle (budding, flowering, fruit setting)
• limited the vegetative expression of the vines in favour of the fruits.
In summer, however, we returned to more traditional Atlantic conditions with a few wet and cool days between the 14th July and the 15th August. Ultimately, rains, throughout, the cycle remained within the seasonal average for Bordeaux.
An important fact: if, at the outset of summer, the vegetal cycle was three weeks ahead in comparison with 2010, the mediocre weather conditions at midsummer slowed down the process and erased much of the precocity acquired in the spring. This extension of the cycle was an undeniable qualitative element.
Careful, surgical and constant manual care provided by our teams to our vines throughout the cycle (rigorous pruning, draconian green and pink harvest, precise leaf-pulling) resulted in:
• the complete elimination of berries scalded by the extreme heat of late June
• the reduction of much of the heterogeneity due to the slow maturing of the grapes
• an optimal exposure of grapes on the trellis and optimally aerated clusters favouring:
+ Full ripening of the berries
+ Resistance to botrytis at end of cycle
The harvest of the older Merlot plots of Beaucaillou began on the 15th September while those of young vines of Lalande-Borie began ten days earlier, on the 5th September.
Our 150 pickers were divided into three teams of 50 ; each team with one sorting table in the field, attended by six people.
Of first importance this year, the selection process started in the summer and was carried on throughout the whole harvesting process: pickers instructed to eliminate defective clusters at the time of the harvest; team motivation in the vineyards at the sorting tables and finally the strict setting of our optical sorting table in the winery.
A novelty at Ducru Beaucaillou: an optical sorting table coupled with a 3D camera allowing a drastic final selection based on multiple criteria (size, shape and colour).
Ultimately, more than 25% of the grapes that appeared on the vines in April / May were eliminated, resulting in the smallest Ducru-Beaucaillou harvest in the last 25 years (even less than in 2003, when we were beset by drought, heat and hail storms).
This “hyper selection” resulted in:
· a very healthy harvest and perfect homogeneity of the grapes,
· ripe and perfectly matured skins,
that favoured a qualitative extraction of tannins during the vinification process.
We ended the picking of the Merlots on the 16th September and started the Cabernet Sauvignon on the 18th September. Clusters were quite small but perfectly ripe, healthy and very tasty!
This small crop of beautiful and tasty grapes was processed with a view to achieve optimal extraction (qualitative / quantitative). Finally, in all our wines, the level of anthocyanins is exceptional and the IPT very high (both comparable to these of 2009 or 2010).
Alcohol content is just above 13% by volume, total acidity is of the order of 3.5 g of H2SO4 and pH around 3.6.
The 2011 Ducru-Beaucaillou is composed of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot.
“One of the vintage’s stars (…) If you haven’t noticed yet, it’s time to jump on Bruno Borie’s bandwagon for the two wines being produced from separate parts of the Ducru Beaucaillou vineyard”. – Robert Parker-April 2012.
“Strikingly floral Cabernet ripeness, finesse and purity, lovely texture, beautifully expressive (...)”. – Steven Spurrier-April 2012.
