DRINK > Château Ducru-Beaucaillou

I am not going to pretend to be any kind of expert on the wine of Bordeaux and there are many vastly more experience wine writers who have reviewed this wine in the past and given their reviews.

But in December of 2023 at a wonderful degustation/omakase dinner at the quite incredible ‘Sushi-M‘ this was the wine of the night and that was after some quite excellent other wines on offer so I thought it was definitely worth writing this up in some more detail.

Sushi M will get its own review soon but for context the food here is single serves of the most remarkable sushi slid on to your plate by a grand master in the business of making nigiri. The dish it was served with was actually not sushi, rather it was a couple of slices of wagyu beef and a mushroom. And yes that flavour combination with this wine elevated everything to a totally different level.

A classy, complex bouquet of lead pencil, mineral, earth, cassis, and flowers jumps from the glass of this dark ruby/purple-colored 1997. Evolved and elegant, with noticeable tannin, it exhibits both breed and class as well as moderate weight, excellent depth, purity, and symmetry.

ROBERT PARKER (87/100)

My research tells me that 1997 was not a great year for wines from Bordeaux but this wine gets the best from both the Cabernet and Merlot grapes, there is plenty of fruit concentration up front but the tannins linger on the back palate nicely balanced with the acid levels.

This wine is listed on the cult wine investment site (wineinvestment.com) at £1,950 which is clearly ludicrous but on the night with the right food it was wonderful.