I received 2 bottles of 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou from B-21 yestedday. They had 6 regular bottle of the 05 listed on their website and 2 listed as “Ex-Chateau-2022”. I chose to purchase the 2 “Ex-Chateau. I expected the bottles to have some sort of markings from the Chateau. But these don’t have anything like that at all. I’ve been googling and everything I see online says Ex-Chateau bottles should have some sort of markings from the Chateau saying that their Ex-Chateau.
Is this wrong or did B-21 send me regular bottles instead of the “ex-Chateau 2022” bottles that I ordered?
by cktb82478
9 Comments
Could be a case where “different wineries have different rules” pertaining to if it has to say Ex-chateau or have a specific marking…I’m no expert when it comes to this haha, hopefully you find an answer though, but I’d be surprised if they legally HAD to make a marking to specify it was “ex-chateau”
ChatGPT said that its DTC but I don’t know about that
I’ve definitely bought ex-chateau bottles from other places that had no distinguishing features other than the excellent condition of the labels for the age.
In general, the wineries do not mark bottles “ex-chateau”. Everything they make was originally ex-chateau. If you did not buy it yourself direct from the chateau, you need to trust the seller as to the provenance.
>I’ve been googling and everything I see online says Ex-Chateau bottles should have some sort of markings from the Chateau saying that their Ex-Chateau.
Can you send me those sources? I’d like to check it out because my experience would say the exact opposite.
It wouldn’t hurt to contact B-21 to confirm. We sold some 1982, 1985, and 1986s that were ex-Chateau a few years back and they all had back labels that stated the year of the release.
[https://cdn.ct-static.com/labels/790665f1-339d-4cfa-9396-7c6f64f51e1b.jpg](https://cdn.ct-static.com/labels/790665f1-339d-4cfa-9396-7c6f64f51e1b.jpg)
Here’s a pic of the 1985 from cellartracker, showing it was released in 2011.
I haven’t seen the 2005, so I have no idea if they did a special back label or not for this one.
Solid choices! What else you got in that fridge?
What did you think ex-chateau meant? Re-conditioned bottles? Recent release?
It helps to know the retailer. B21 is known and should be above board. It never hurts to contact them to confirm. That said, it is highly unlikely that a vintage as recent as 2022 is unlikely to come from anywhere other than the chateau whether marked that way or not.