Château Léoville Barton, 2ème Cru Classé, St Julien, 2025
The 2025 Leoville Barton reminds Damien of the magnificent 2016. It's a superb wine: dark, linear and controlled. Initially there is a floral element, lots of violets, rose petals and pot pourri followed by dark chocolate, spices and black fruit. The palate is muscular and intense with lots of dark cassis interspersed with fine minerals and graphite. There's lots of structure here with supporting tannins and a beautiful saline finish with notes of crushed raspberry and cherry, vanilla and tobacco. A really impressive, vertical Leoville Barton.
critic reviews
The 2025 Léoville Barton was picked between 4 September and 18 September and matured in 60% new oak barrels. This has an exquisite bouquet already, with ebullient blackberry and bilberry scents, beautifully integrated oak, keeping the DNA of Léoville Barton despite the warm summer. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, gentle grip, very pure fruit and a "cool" and focused finish. With lower alcohol, between 13.0 and 13.5%, the terroir really shows through here. Superb.
Beautiful vintage at Léoville Barton, delivers layer upon layer of crayon, graphite, textural interest and character, we are on another level of St Julien and right at the top of the vintage. Black chocolate and espresso coupled with finesse and fragrance that takes you into the heart of St Julien. A flood of flavour, what a brilliantly judged wine, powerful with air in all the right places. Just a breath below the brilliant 2023 for me.
Another wine that will appeal to purists, the 2025 Léoville Barton offers up notes of crème de cassis, violets, pencils shavings and new oak, followed by a medium- to full-bodied, taut and penetrating palate that's racy and youthfully structured, with a concentrated mid-palate that reflects the very low yields (22 hectoliters per hectare) this year. It's a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc, harvested between September 4 and 18.