Chateau Branaire Ducru   Chateau Branaire Ducru

2008 Chateau Branaire Ducru

By Chateau Branaire Ducru

2008 Chateau Branaire Ducru from Chateau Branaire Ducru, St-Julien, Bordeaux

The 2008 vintage from the illustrious St-Julien appellation manifested a narrative of triumph over challenge. After an unsettled flowering season and a summer that scribed a tale of climatic peaks and troughs, the estates in Bordeaux were bequeathed with an Indian summer that brought about redemption. It is within this context that the 2008 Chateau Branaire Ducru from Chateau Branaire Ducru unfurls its bouquet.

 

Patience and Precision: Keys to the 2008 Ensemble

With patience as a virtue and precise vinification practices, the harvest yielded fruit imbued with maturity and balance. The meticulously picked berries were transformed into a claret that harmoniously juxtaposes structure with elegance—a hallmark character attributed to the superb stewardship of Chateau Branaire Ducru.

 

Structural Elegance Amidst Climatic Capriciousness

The resultant 2008 Chateau Branaire Ducru is a tapestry of dark fruits, embracing blackcurrant and blackberry, interlaced with subtle oak spice, cedar, and tobacco leaf nuances. The wine encapsulates the perseverance of its year—a vintage of resolve—exhibiting a tannic backbone that has mellowed gracefully, bestowing upon it an approachable suppleness.

This particular offering presents itself as a venerable candidate for wine investment, given its captivation of the quintessential gravitas of St-Julien balanced by its nuanced evolution. Its collectability is underscored by the growing infrequency of such vintages, which sing both of their year's climatic narrative and of the distinctive handprint of their chateau.

The 2008 Chateau Branaire Ducru conveys a journey on the palate; one where disciplined winemaking converges with climatic challenges, ultimately culminating in a wine assured to enchant investors and connoisseurs alike. Insightfully investing in bottles of this St-Julien gem promises not only to ornament one's cellar but also to bear fruits of financial merit when patience ushers bottles to maturation.

Current market price

$970.00

12x75cl

Highest score

91

POP score

52.73

Scores and tasting notes

91

A stunning success for the vintage, this enticing St.-Julien reveals notes of lead pencil shavings, sweet raspberries and black currants and a subtle touch of oak. Elegant, restrained yet authoritative and impressively intense, it is a medium to full-bodied, lightly tannic effort will be even better with 1-2 years of bottle age and will keep for 15-20 years.

Robert Parker Jr - The Wine Advocate, 1 May 2011

Vintage performance