Château Ducru-Beaucaillou

The estate's 300-year history begins on 30 May 1720, when squire Jacques de Bergeron married Marie Dejean, heiress of the vineyard, in the church of Saint-Julien de Reignac. Bertrand Ducru, a merchant from Béarn, bought the property in 1797 (16 Vendémiaire, Year 6) and added his name to Beaucaillou, investing heavily in the cellars and vineyard and hiring Parisian architect Paul Abadie, a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts, to build a Directoire-style chartreuse in the 1820s. After Ducru's death in 1829, his daughter Marie-Louise Ravez became sole owner in 1860 by buying out her brother; under her the property commanded the highest price in Saint-Julien of its era and earned Second Growth status in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification. On 3 March 1866 the estate was sold to Lucie-Caroline Dassier, wife of négociant Nathaniel Johnston, who brought a breath of modernity to the property; in 1884, working with estate manager Ernest David and Alexis Millardet, Johnston developed Bordeaux mixture, a treatment very effective against the downy mildew fungus then infesting French vineyards. World War I, the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and American Prohibition damaged the Johnstons' business, and they sold the estate in 1928 to Fernand Odon Desbarats. After roughly a decade hurt by the Depression and a run of poor vintages, the Desbarats sold, and in 1942 Francis Borie, already a vineyard owner at Château Haut-Batailley in neighboring Pauillac, took over Ducru-Beaucaillou on a life annuity rental. The estate's history page heads the Desbarats era "1928 to 1941" but gives 1942 for the handover in its text, as does its Borie-family page; this article uses 1942.

• The estate's 300-year history begins with a 30 May 1720 marriage uniting the Bergeron and Dejean families
• Bertrand Ducru bought the property in 1797 and added his name; his daughter Marie-Louise Ravez became sole owner in 1860 and saw the estate earn Second Growth status in the 1855 Classification
• Sold to Nathaniel Johnston's wife Lucie-Caroline Dassier in 1866; Johnston developed Bordeaux mixture with Ernest David and Alexis Millardet in 1884
• Sold to Fernand Odon Desbarats in 1928; Francis Borie took over on a life annuity rental in 1942

Francis Borie, an energetic merchant from Corrèze whom the estate calls "a relentless builder," was also a winegrower at Château Haut-Batailley in Pauillac when he took on the property in 1942. In 1959 his son Jean-Eugène Borie succeeded him and undertook meticulous restoration of the vineyard and cellars; from the second half of the 1950s, Ducru-Beaucaillou's reputation rose to the top rank in Bordeaux. Jean-Eugène married Monique Borie, who was brought up at Château Ducluzeau in the Listrac appellation, in 1950. Monique Borie chaired the estate's Supervisory Board from 1998 until stepping back in early 2020, when Jack Bouin, newly retired from a career at Crédit Agricole including as its Managing Director for the Aquitaine region, succeeded her in that role; she still lives in the château's north wing. Bruno-Eugène Borie, son of Monique and Jean-Eugène and the third generation of the family to run the estate, is Chairman of the Executive Board of Ducru Beaucaillou SA. Born and raised on the property, he marked 20 years at the helm in 2023, placing his start around 2003, and the estate describes him as a "resident owner" who cultivates the property with passion and rigour. He has launched an ambitious ten-year plan for the "sustainable reconstruction" of the vineyards and cellars, and entrusted the château's restoration to Sarah Poniatowska, a descendant of Poland's King Stanislas II.

• Francis Borie (from 1942) was also a winegrower at Château Haut-Batailley in Pauillac before taking on Ducru-Beaucaillou
• Jean-Eugène Borie succeeded his father in 1959 and restored the vineyard and cellars; he married Monique Borie in 1950
• Monique Borie chaired the Supervisory Board from 1998 to early 2020, when Jack Bouin (formerly of Crédit Agricole) succeeded her
• Bruno-Eugène Borie, the third generation, is Chairman of the Executive Board and a resident owner, with about 20 years at the helm as of 2023

The estate's vineyard totals 105 hectares in the Saint-Julien appellation. The property takes its name from its defining terroir: Gunzian gravel, quartz pebbles swept in by the ancient Garonne at the beginning of the early Quaternary period, probably almost two million years ago. A walk through the vineyard turns up Lydian jasper from the Pyrenees, flint, quartz and agatoids among the gravel. These poor soils force vines to root deep for nutrients, and the pebbles store daytime heat and radiate it back to the vines at night, aiding ripening. The estate lies close to the Gironde estuary, Europe's largest at 635 square kilometres and more than three kilometres wide at this point on the river; its four daily tides moderate winter cold and summer heat and help deflect hail. Saint-Julien itself is a small appellation of about 900 hectares that is home to eleven classified growths, carved from stony ridges between Margaux and Pauillac. The wines are made predominantly from Cabernet Sauvignon (about 60% depending on the vintage), blended with roughly one third Merlot and the remainder Petit Verdot for a spicy touch; the exact blend varies by vintage, and the estate's technical sheet records the 2022 Grand Vin at 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot.

• 105 hectares of vineyard in Saint-Julien
• Named for Gunzian gravel deposited by the ancient Garonne roughly two million years ago; soils also include flint, quartz and Lydian jasper from the Pyrenees
• Borders the Gironde estuary (635 km²), whose tides moderate temperature extremes and help deflect hail
• Saint-Julien covers about 900 hectares and contains eleven classified growths
• Blend varies by vintage: typically about 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, a third Merlot and the remainder Petit Verdot; the estate's 2022 technical sheet records 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot for that vintage

Selection is increasingly strict: only berries with no defect are kept, grapes are sorted first in the vineyard and again with optical sorting in the vat room, and every batch is tasted repeatedly by an in-house committee overseen by consultant oenologist Eric Boissenot. The volume selected for the Grand Vin has fallen from 16,000 cases in 2002 to about 8,000 cases in recent vintages, and about 50 people are involved by hand in crafting each bottle. Malolactic fermentation takes place in concrete vats, and the Grand Vin is aged in 100% new French oak barrels for 18 months. La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou, from vines near the La Mouline stream, blends around 60% Cabernet Sauvignon with 35% to 37% Merlot and 3% to 5% Petit Verdot each year; it is not a second wine, because it comes from vines not used to produce the Grand Vin, and it was first released in 1995. Le Petit Ducru de Ducru-Beaucaillou is a Cabernet-Merlot blend, sometimes with a touch of Petit Verdot depending on the vintage; it replaced the former Lalande-Borie, which ceased to exist after the 2018 vintage. The estate earned ISO 14001 certification in 2016 and HVE3 certification in 2017 for its vineyard management, which has replaced herbicides with mechanical weeding, chemical fertilizers with manure and compost, and insecticides with pheromones and kaolin clay, and it began converting to organic farming with the 2018 vintage.

• Grand Vin selection tightened from 16,000 cases in 2002 to about 8,000 cases in recent vintages; consultant oenologist is Eric Boissenot
• Grand Vin aged 18 months in 100% new French oak
• La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou: roughly 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35-37% Merlot, 3-5% Petit Verdot; first released in 1995
• Le Petit Ducru de Ducru-Beaucaillou is a Cabernet-Merlot blend that replaced Lalande-Borie after the 2018 vintage
• ISO 14001 (2016) and HVE3 (2017) certified; organic farming conversion began with the 2018 vintage

The château is a Directoire-style "chartreuse" whose raised ground floor, fourteen bay windows and triangular pediment date to the building campaign Bertrand Ducru commissioned from architect Paul Abadie in the 1820s. At the end of the 19th century, architect Michel-Louis Garros, a native of Barsac and a student at the École des Beaux-Arts who won the 1887 Grand Prix d'Architecture, added two Victorian towers with balustraded terraces for Nathaniel Johnston, while landscape architect Eugène Bühler designed the five-hectare riverside park with a pond, a walled vegetable garden and a wrought-iron greenhouse; the park's mature trees include a Ginkgo biloba, blue Atlas cedars, cedars of Lebanon and sequoias. Bruno-Eugène Borie, the current proprietor, cooks and is an art collector. Keith Haring, Carl André, Christian Boltanski, Annette Messager, Claude Viallat, Jean-Pierre Raynaud and Jean-Marc Bustamante are among the artists who have worked at Ducru-Beaucaillou; Jade Jagger designed the label for La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou, and Sarah Poniatowska decorated the interior of the historic building. Across three centuries, six families have owned the property: the Desjean, Bergeron, Ducru, Johnston, Desbarat and Borie families.

• Directoire-style chartreuse built for Bertrand Ducru by architect Paul Abadie in the 1820s
• Two Victorian towers and a five-hectare park added under Nathaniel Johnston by architects Michel-Louis Garros and Eugène Bühler
• Bruno-Eugène Borie is an art collector; Jade Jagger designed the La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou label
• Six families across 300 years: Desjean, Bergeron, Ducru, Johnston, Desbarat and Borie

Jeff Leve of The Wine Cellar Insider has scored a run of recent Ducru-Beaucaillou vintages highly, awarding 100 points to both the 2016 (85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot) and the 2022 (which he lists at 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot), 99 points each to the 2009, the 2019 and the 1961, 98 points to the 2010 and the 2020, 97 points to the 1982 and 96 points to the 1996. He calls 2009 and 2010 "the finest examples I've ever tasted from this property," candidates for legendary status in the estate's history. Leve also documents a difficult chapter before Bruno Borie's tenure: a TCA (cork taint) problem in the cellars affected vintages from about 1986 to 1993 or 1994 and was fully resolved by 1995; under Bruno Borie's direction, the remaining older stock from that period was recorked and any bottles still showing TCA were destroyed. Ducru-Beaucaillou production fell from 20,000-25,000 cases a year in the 1980s to 15,000-20,000 cases in the 1990s, and has averaged 9,000 to 11,000 cases since Bruno Borie began managing the estate in 2003.

• 100 points (Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider): 2016 and 2022 vintages
• 99 points: 2009, 2019 and 1961; 98 points: 2010 and 2020; 97 points: 1982; 96 points: 1996 (all Jeff Leve)
• A TCA contamination problem affected roughly 1986-1994 vintages, resolved by 1995; affected older stock was recorked and any tainted bottles destroyed under Bruno Borie
• Ducru-Beaucaillou production: 20,000-25,000 cases/year in the 1980s, 15,000-20,000 cases in the 1990s, averaging 9,000-11,000 cases since 2003

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/300-years-of-inspiration/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/the-meaning-of-the-work/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/the-borie-family/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/the-terroir/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/the-french-art-of-living/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/ducru-beaucaillou/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/la-croix-ducru-beaucaillou/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/le-petit-ducru-de-ducru-beaucaillou/, https://www.chateau-ducru-beaucaillou.com/en/contact-us/, and the estate's own 2022-vintage technical sheet. Secondary sources: Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855 (official 1855 classification listing), Decanter (13 September 2024), and Jeff Leve's The Wine Cellar Insider. Last verified 2026-10-12. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs. Spot something off? Submit a correction: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM0MsYoQFCpXb4qbSPVM2TBRuC2624pOhrffs7IGhpfGCCQA/viewform