Château Léoville Barton, 2ème Cru Classé, St Julien, 2019
Tasted twice. The UGC sample was uncharacteristically weak so we requested a fresh sample, and boy, what a difference. This has real gravitas. The colour when you pour into the glass is opaque, with just the finest slither of purple. So deep and brooding; serious, intense, introverted, then some stary fruit emerges with faint notes of floral fragrance. On the palate the texture of the fruit is very impressive, it’s creamy and mouthcoating, pure crème de cassis, boysenberries and mulberry, vivid and long. This has all the hallmarks of a noble and powerful Leoville Barton full of concentration and depth, enveloped by imposing yet integrated tannins that coat the palate with lingering flavours of Valrhona chocolate, Asian spice and blackcurrant. Glorious! 85.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14.5% Merlot cropped at a paltry 34 hL/ha.
critic reviews
The 2019 Leoville Barton is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs a fait bit of swirling to coax out wonderfully pure notes of blackcurrant jelly, wild blueberries, and boysenberries, followed by hints of tar, lavender, crushed rocks, and fragrant soil. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in elegance, with very fine-grained, silt-like tannins and beautiful tension framing the highly nuanced black fruits, finishing very long and fantastically layered.
The 2019 Léoville Barton has a powerful and comparatively rich bouquet with layers of black fruit suffused with minerals - wonderful delineation. This has an effortlessness about it. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, gorgeous satin-like texture, mineral-driven with hints of truffle and white pepper towards the exceedingly harmonious finish. I thought this was outstanding before - now I think it might be a benchmark. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.
Like its stablemate Langoa Barton, the 2019 Leoville Barton is a timeless classic, made for patient connoisseurs. Offering up aromas of blackcurrants, plums, pencil shavings and licorice, it's full-bodied, deep and concentrated, its deep core of fruit framed by a chassis of rich, powdery tannin that makes itself felt on the youthfully firm finish. While it's clearly built for the long haul, its structural seamlessness and mid-palate plenitude mark it out as one of the finest wines from this chateau in recent times. Could it be a more concentrated modern-day version of Anthony Barton's brilliant 1985?
Big rich, powerful wine with pencil lead precision. This is a brilliant wine, I loved it En Primeur and it is delivering on expectations. It's big, as is Langoa in this vintage, with damson and black cherry fruits, and tons of gourmet notes from brioche to bacon rind to chocolate shavings. The tannins are going to need a good decade to soften, but when it is ready, this is going to be such a fun wine to share with friends.