Chateau Branaire-Ducru Saint-Julien 2001 CS20230804 and Promontory

and Promontory

with spontaneous fermentations and lunar-cycle rackings in the cellar

and gentian root

the San Francisco sommelier who once ran the wine program at RN74 before Santa Barbara pulled him into making his own

Totally Dry

Chateau Branaire-Ducru Saint-Julien 2001 CS20230804 and PromontoryThe 2001 Saint Julien vintage has always sat in the shadow of 2000 and 2005, which is exactly why bottles like this are still worth drinking the wines were classically built, never overripe, and have aged on a long, steady curve. Branaire Ducru's Fourth Growth, traditional style is a natural fit for this kind of vintage: now well into the secondary stage, with cedar and tobacco coming forward but plenty of fruit still in the mid palate. A drinking