Chateau Branaire-Ducru Saint-Julien 2001

The 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-window sweet spot at twenty-plus years.