La Réserve de Léoville Barton, Saint-Julien, Château Léoville Barton 2019
Decanter 92 (2024); Jeb Dunnuck 91 (2024)
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Why this wine
The second wine of a Second Growth Saint-Julien, off forty-five-year-old vines on gravel over clay and made the same traditional way as the grand vin. Cabernet-dominated and built to last rather than to flatter early. Classified-growth structure without the classified-growth ticket.
At a glance
- Grape
- Cabernet Sauvignon 74%, Merlot 22%, Cabernet Franc 4%
- Region
- Bordeaux, France
- Alcohol
- 14.00%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Cheese
How it tastes
Forest berries and dense black fruit, with cedar, coffee and a touch of vanilla spice on top. Full-bodied and traditionally built, the acidity fresh and the tannins robust, running to a long, oaky finish. Cabernet Sauvignon 74%, Merlot 22%, Cabernet Franc 4%.
The producer
Château Léoville Barton lies close to the Gironde in Saint-Julien, sandwiched between the water and Château Talbot on the gravel over deep clay that defines the commune. The Barton family has been in Bordeaux since Thomas Barton arrived from Ireland in 1722; his grandson bought part of the Léoville estate in 1826, and Anthony Barton now owns fifty-one hectares here, planted 74% Cabernet Sauvignon in the classic Médoc proportion. Vines are double Guyot trained at high density, average forty-five years old and yield forty-two hectolitres per hectare, worked with traditional ploughing, no weed killers and limited fertiliser. Fermentation lasted about five days with twice-daily pump-overs, the wine sat roughly two weeks on skins, and the press wine — an important part of the blend — went in before malolactic conversion in vat and twelve months in French oak. La Réserve is the second wine.
Food and drinking
Serve at 17–18°C. Good with rib of beef, rack of lamb, roast venison, or mature Comté. Drinking from now to around 2035; give it two hours in a decanter.