Served at the Steve8/TWC offline. Decanted ~ 2 hours. Dark ruby/garnet colour. Aromas of cassis, violets, molten black licorice, and cedar. Medium-bodied with vanilla, cedar, and cassis. Moderate finish, ~30s, with green pepper and berry fruit. 87 points (08/24/2004).

Medium-dark ruby colour; opaque at centre. Aromas of cedar, cassis, tobacco, lead pencil. Medium-bodied, with cedar, black currant, camphor, lead pencil. Moderate finish, 30-35s. 90 points (07/31/2005).

I really enjoyed this wine. It is drinking surprisingly well now and should hold up for several more years. Cedar, cigar and black fruit. Highly recommended for a less expensive Bordeaux. LP91

Beycheville spends an incredible amount on their grounds, and they are beautiful! However, I think they should spend more on their vinyards and less on their grounds and perhaps they would warrant better scores for their wines!

Isn't Beychevelle's winemaker not deliberately making wines more elegant ('classic') and with less complexity? I only have some 2000s (still, RP91) and I'm not planning to try them for a decade or so, but I imagine that lighter, 'elegant' wines may not be the best ones in lesser years.

I've found Beychevelle quite surprising in off years.

benchland----Surprisingly Good or surprisingly Bad?

quote:

Originally posted by latour67:
Beycheville spends an incredible amount on their grounds, and they are beautiful! However, I think they should spend more on their vinyards and less on their grounds and perhaps they would warrant better scores for their wines!

L67,

This is the 3rd time I have heard this. A friend that visited Beycheville a few years ago told me they seemed to spend more time pruning shrubs than vines.

Beychevelle was the first Bordeaux estate I visited, back in the hot summer of '03. They have an enormous amount of land there, not all is under vines. I'm sure they have some Polish dudes to take care of the grass, trees and flowers. What I saw was very modern equipment, I heard a professional story from a very attractive young lady and I'm sure the winemaker knows what he's doing...

quote:

Originally posted by New DutchDrinker:
I heard a professional story from a very attractive young lady and I'm sure the winemaker knows ...

I've seen her pictures.
They are on my domain below,
just add the first 3 letters of your last name after .com/
(all lower case)

At the Toronto offline:

The wine had a nose of cedar with a hint of shoe polish. Nice frame but young. Should improve. 86-89