Château Léoville Barton, 2ème Cru Classé, St Julien, 2022
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 2022 Léoville Barton has much more delineation and class on the nose: blackberry, cassis, light crushed stone mixed with violets. The palate is medium-bodied with dense black fruit, very grippy in the mouth, clean and pure with well-integrated oak towards the finish. Very composed and persistent, this has a promising and long future ahead. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.
This is 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11.5% Merlot and 5.5% Cabernet Franc, and the élevage was in 60% new oak. Beautiful – and I mean really beautiful – aromatics on the nose here, dark and focused, with savoury cedar and toast intertwined with dried dark fruits, blackcurrant white peach and pepper. This was very consistent, found on a second taste at the property. The palate displays lovely coherence, textural and structural, with sweet and savoury dark fruits, currant, blackberry, damson and black olive, with a bed of fine ripe and tightly knit tannins, the wine washing the palate with these rich, structural and balanced elements. Totally coherent, fresh and polished, with a long grip infused with tannic substance. Fabulous length, with a flourish of ripe and energetic tannins here, lingering for an eternity. A superb Léoville-Barton in this vintage, with absolutely everything in place for the future. The alcohol on the label is 14%. Tasted three times.
Retains signature character and architecture, combined with a come-hither ripeness that is all about the 2022 vintage. A brilliant wine, luscious and supple with cassis and bilberry, damson and black cherry along with cocoa bean and mandarin. Delivers confidence and ageability. The Barton family continue to make this wine unmissable.
One of the stars of the Medoc and a wine likely to equal or surpass its 2019 and 2016 counterparts, the 2022 Leoville Barton unwinds in the glass with deep aromas of cassis, pencil shavings, spices and tobacco leaf, followed by a medium to full-bodied, deep and layered palate that's vibrant, pure and seamless, with beautifully classy tannins and a long, penetrating finish. The 2022 is a blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11.5% Merlot and 5.5% Cabernet Franc; and it's the first vintage produced in the estate's new winery, which more than doubled the number of vats, permitting sub-plot by sub-plot harvesting and vinification, along with a number of other technical improvements which translate into enhanced purity and precision.