1970 CHÂTEAU DUCRU BEAUCAILLOU 1970

(09-2007)

(06-1996)
This wine has been fully mature and delicious for many years, so I was not surprised by how stunning this bottle was. It has always been an outstanding wine for the vintage - complex, rich, savory, and the quintessentially elegant Bordeaux. This beauty continues to reveal the fragrance and finesse that one expects from Lafite-Rothschild but so rarely finds. A fragrant, complex bouquet of cedar, herbs, vanillin, fruitcake, and coffee is followed by a soft, gentle, graciously-constructed wine with sweet layers of fruit. I am not sure how much longer the 1970 Ducru will keep, but from regular bottle, it is delicious and should be consumed. How nice it would be to have a stock of magnums of this wine in the cellar!

(05-1993)
Deep garnet; spicy cassis and tar nose is ripe and full; rich, full, chewy and fruity; at its peak; a very classy claret.

(09-1999)
Leaving aside Latour, I rate Ducru and Cheval Blanc as the best of the '70s.