Bordeaux 2008 at Ten Years: St Julien
While devoid of first growths, St Julien is certainly not devoid of top-class châteaux turning out some stellar wines, in some cases with an almost frightening reliability. The appellation is in some ways ruled by the three descendants of the great Léoville estate, Château Léoville-Las-Cases, Château Léoville-Poyferré and Château Léoville-Barton, and all three properties have seen a very long and prosperous period of stable ownership, in the hands of the Delon, Cuvelier and Barton families. This stability is surely not coincidental to the consistently high quality of their wines.
Looking beyond the Léoville trio, while I enjoy the wines of numerous other properties in the appellation, the only other real contender to the crown of St Julien is Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, a property raised to great heights by Bruno Borie. Sadly this estate was not represented at this tasting of the 2008 vintage, and so it was not possible to see how the wine compared to its second growth peers on this occasion. As for Château Gruaud-Larose, while this estate has occasionally put in quite stellar performances, as it did with the giant-killing 2000 vintage, this is not a feat that has been replicated in many vintages since. The wines are good enough, but in terms of excitement they seem to be treading water compared to the other second growths.
