Beschreibung:

Château Beychevelle The word on Beychevelle when I arrived in Bordeaux in the 70s was that the wines had become too light, due to insufficient fermentation cellar space, too many young vines and an over-domination of Merlot in the vineyard. Personally I never found this to be the case. Perhaps this reputation was a hangover from the 50s and early 60s when the wines were indeed much lighter and in Bordeaux's merciless côteries, reputations tend to stick. But I always found the more recent vintages to be on the contrary, full-styled, fleshy and srongly-structured, almost Pauillacy. Certainly the cellar space was increased in the mid-80s with the addition of several stainless vats to complement the old concrete ones ; certainly young vines do get older !; and certainly the percentage of Merlot is now still just as high as then, at about 1/3 of the vineyard. So the objections seem unfounded. For me, the dark, brooding, rather brawny style of the 70s continued on, with the exception of some of the off-vintages of course, as the signature of Beychevelle right up to the transition of around 2014 to a much fleshier, fat, soft and sweet wine that was further enhanced by the added control provided by the very recent sparkling new vat room and cellar. I love those older styles, starting with a very impressive '70 that I bought in New York in 1975 the same week as the Pichon Lalande (see later). The taste of that wine will stay with me for ever (maybe because I finished the bottle on my own) and has always been my reference for trying to nail Beychevelle in blind tastings : it was dark purple in colour, brawny and strongly assertive : Cabernet with a vaguely mushroomy tinge, toughly tannic but covered in a layer of fat, then hollowed out in the middle, giving it that classic Médoc composure that prevented it from becoming common. The wines offerred today continue in that theme : the '89 and '90 both very full-styled, the '89 clearly richer and mor tannic, the '90 softer ; the '96 and '99 a bit slimmer (these were Cabernet vintages and Beychevelle seems to win out in the Merlot ones) ; the '00 very similar to the strongly rich '89 ; and the amazingly soft but full '05. By now, Lucien Soussotte, the cellar-master of all the previous vintages, had retired, and I noticed the wines getting henceforth much softer and sweeter-tasting. Château Beychevelle 1970 Saint-Julien, 4ème cru classé In original wooden cases. Damaged wax capsules. One rasied cork. Bin-soiled labels, one detached. Levels: one upper-shoulder, one mid-shoulder 2 jeroboams per lot