Château Léoville Las Cases, 2ème Cru Classé, St Julien, 2022
Widely regarded as one of the wines of the vintage, the 2022 Leoville Las Cases was tasted away from its natural habitat, in chateau Nenin, due to construction works at home in St Julien. This certainly didn't dampen our enthusiasm, this is one of the great Leovilles, powerful and rippling, but full of tension. As one would expect, this is initially quite introverted, but with coaxing, notes of dark berries, graphite, loamy earth, Asian spices, camphor and lavender emerge. Power and subtlety. The palate is a well of lively, cassis and dark cherry fruit buttressed by glorious, detailed tannins. This is layered and complex, then tapers down to a linear finish: really well measured, this is a wine of huge potential, yet with a sense of control and focus. A blend of 83.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10.5% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot.
critic reviews
The 2022 Léoville Las Cases has a very commendable bouquet, wonderful delineation, the oak seamlessly integrated, quite poised and less heady than its peers. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins. Quite bold and assertive, perhaps missing the precision promised by the aromatics. This is one of half-a-dozen Saint-Julien wines that did not correspond to what I have tasted before, so I shall not score this. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.
The assemblage of the Delon grand vin is 83.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10.5% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot, and the press wine accounts for 8% of the blend. The élevage was in 85% new oak barrels for 18 months. The aromatics here are striking, with an almost confit intensity to the fruits, sweet currant and cranberry, with a touch of white pepper and pressed iris. The palate starts out with an immediately complete style, a fresh and polished substance which shimmers with dark fruits, liquorice, olive, tar and salted black cherries, all of which lies draped over a rich and ripe tannic structure, which provides a beautifully harmonious presence through the end of the palate and into the finish. Such delicious and divine harmony here, with great tannic structure, which builds to a strong crescendo in the midpalate on a second taste, the interplay between the dark tannins and the salted black fruits just glorious, and yet it all feels so fresh and bright. The finish is long and gripped by powdery, polished tannins which linger forever at the end of the palate. The alcohol is 14% on the label.
Cassis puree, bitter chocolate, so much power and intensity, with a joy and an immediacy that you rarely get in Las Cases. The tannins have a slight tug on the finish which tells you that the power of this vintage remains a little unruly, needs wrestling into place on this particular site. But hard to argue with, layered, powerful, confident, slow-moving. Arnaud Delon is joining his father at the Delon estates, and the new winery is due for completion by September 2025. 84% new oak for ageing. Eric Boissenot consultant, harvest September 8 to 30.
One of the wines of the vintage this year is the 2022 Leoville Las Cases, a monument in the making that combines unerring classicism with unusual sensuality and charm by the standards of this estate's sometimes youthfully forbidding wines. Exhibiting deep aromas of dark berries, violets, pencil lead, rose petals and tobacco leaf, it's full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, with terrific concentration, beautiful purity of fruit, abundant but refined tannins and a long, vibrant finish. On the several occasions that I tasted it, the 2022 was surprisingly open for a young Las Cases, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were to shut down after a few years in bottle. It's a blend of 83.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10.5% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot.