Bordeaux 2025: Leoville and Langoa Barton

Lilian and Damien Barton celebrated the 200th anniversary of Château Léoville Barton this year. In 1826, their ancestor, Hugh Barton acquired a quarter of the great Leoville estate and created a brand that has found favour with generations of claret drinkers. Six generations later, Damien is managing Leoville Barton and the same Franco-Irish spirit is alive and well. The 2025s are fitting wines to celebrate this milestone, although they probably would have liked a bit more of them… Yields are the smallest since the frost affected 1991 vintage, but what they have is exceptional. Dark and focussed, this is a potent and dynamic style, bristling with bilberry and mineral infused cassis enveloped by an admirable framework of tannins. Purists will love the unimpeachable lines of this 2025 Leoville Barton – a wine that will no doubt flourish in the cellar.

At our tasting in April, Langoa Barton showed much more immediate appeal than its bigger brother. With more Merlot influence, this has a pliant and juicy blueberry and blackcurrant core, intertwined with a beautifully integrated oak character of graphite and sandalwood and imbued with an unctuous texture which suggests it will provide much drinking pleasure from as early as 2030. If recent history is anything to go by, it will be an excellent buy and possibly one of the value picks of the vintage.