Château Langoa Barton, 3ème Cru Classé, St Julien, 2020
As with the Leoville Barton, we had a disappointing UGC sample, so Lilian kindly provided a fresh specimen from her cellars. Yields were low at both these St Julien estates (just 34hL/ha), with tiny berries and thick skins. This high ratio of skin to juice has resulted in a striking colour and a wonderfully fragrant bouquet of sweet black cherry, cassis and spices. The palate is vibrant and mouth-watering, with ample black fruit, hints of stary red berries and minerals. There’s lots of energy and tension; the fruit is crisp and purposeful, gripped by rather seductive tannins and finishing with crème de cassis and lick of dark chocolate. A very impressive Langoa produced from 53.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot and 8.5% Cabernet Franc.
critic reviews
The 2020 Langoa Barton has a wonderful, precise, mineral-driven bouquet with subtle marine scents (oyster shell and Crustacea) that emerge with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins. Stylistically, it's not unlike the Léoville Barton, though this has more control and tension toward the persuasive finish. Glorious—one of the finest releases in recent years and better than the showing just after bottling. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Langoa Barton comes bounding out of the glass with eager-to-please notes of kirsch, juicy blueberries, and cassis, plus wafts of fallen leaves, underbrush, and allspice. The medium-bodied palate is plush and juicy, with open-knit black fruits and plenty of freshness, finishing with a spicy kick. It's fabulously delicious right now, but give it another couple of years to fully integrate and then drink it over the next 20 years+.
The 2020 Langoa Barton has turned out superbly in bottle, offering up generous aromas of black cherries, creme de cassis, licorice and pencil shavings deftly framed by classy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, deep and fleshy, its concentrated core of ripe but vibrant fruit is framed by sweet, powdery tannins and lively acids. Beautifully balanced, it's somewhat more open out of the gates than the excellent 2019 and will offer an especially broad drinking window.
Restrained and serious, in keeping with the character of the vintage. Lovely silky tannins, unrolls slowly, with plenty of black fruits, mint leaf and pencil lead, this is delicous, restrained power, building on their success of recent vintages. 34hl/ha yield, harvest September 14 to 28.