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: 2018 Léoville-Barton, St-Julien

2018 Léoville-Barton, St-Julien (Pre-Arrival)

SKU #1407984 97 points Jeb Dunnuck

Outer quote mark This estate has been on fire in recent vintages, and the 2018 Château Léoville Barton is up there with the best of them. Based on 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot that was brought up in 60% new French oak, this classic, flawlessly balanced, straight-up awesome Saint-Julien has loads of cassis and mulberry fruits as well as notes of freshly sharpened pencils, leafy tobacco, chocolate, and earth. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, it has building tannins and healthy acidity, yet the fruit is pure, perfectly ripe, and wonderfully integrated with all the wine's components. As is normal with this cuvée, it closes down with extended air and is going to take a solid 8-10 years of bottle age to reach the early stages of maturity. It's going to evolve for 30-40 years in cold cellars. Inner quote mark (3/2021)

97 points James Suckling

Outer quote mark Sweet berries, blackberries, raspberries and violets follow through to a full body with extremely creamy, polished tannins that caress the palate. It’s really long and polished. Gorgeous finish. Inner quote mark (3/2021)

97 points Wine Enthusiast

Outer quote mark In this wine, fine and rich tannins partner with powerful black-plum and black-currant fruits. Densely textured while also having swathes of rich fruits, the wine shows both a firm side and one that offers total deliciousness. As it matures, both these aspects will come together. *Editors’ Choice* (RV) Inner quote mark (3/2021)

97 points Wine Spectator

Outer quote mark Cassis, crushed plum and steeped blackberry fruit is all packed into this wine, along with tar, violet and roasted apple wood notes, plus a terrific tug of warm earth. Shows lots of energy in reserve, with a tightly knit finish pulling everything together. Cellaring required. *Highly Recommended* (JM) Inner quote mark (3/2021)

96 points Decanter

Outer quote mark Well-polished blackcurrant, cassis and bilberry, everything pretty silky and firm. Not fully showing its generosity at this point but no question that it is going to get there soon. Clear charcoal, graphite and woodsmoke as it opens up. A ton of life ahead, and an appealing sense of mint freshness. Lives up to its en primeur promise - this is Léoville Barton at its most confident. (JA) Inner quote mark (11/2020)

96 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2018 Léoville-Barton is a gorgeous, exotic wine. Crème de cassis, lavender, menthol, licorice and cloves race out of the glass. The 2018 marries the natural opulence of the year with a pretty classic sense of structure, making for one of the more compelling wines of the year. I would give this a good decade in the cellar. There is much to look forward to. I especially admire the energy and poise here. (AG) Inner quote mark (3/2021)

94 points Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2018 Léoville Barton needs a little swirling to coax out delicate notions of fresh blackberries, mulberries and cassis, plus touches of pencil shavings, clove oil, charcoal and black truffles. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers a great intensity of earth and mineral-laced black fruit flavors, supported by firm, ripe, grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing on a lingering ferrous note. Give it a good 4-5 years in bottle and drink it over the next 20 years+. (LPB) 94+ Inner quote mark (3/2021)

Jancis Robinson

Outer quote mark Dark and brooding on the nose, with savoury spices and earthy blackcurrant fruit. Superb depth of dark cassis fruit and brilliant retained freshness of acidity. For now, the oak is a little obvious but that is no worry, there is such intensity and such a bold tannic structure that this is best left in the cellar longer than most. Robust, grippy tannins amply frame the fruit and add to the sense of gravitas here. This is a wine that takes the ripe concentration of the vintage and wraps it in house style – freshness and structure. Excellent. 18/20 points (TP) Inner quote mark (10/2020)

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2018 Léoville-Barton, St-Julien

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Product Reviews:

By: Trey Beffa | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/24/2019 | Send Email

Very dark color, very aromatic and intense, concentrated and complex, bit compact now but this wine has a ton going on. Big and study but with elegance and purity. Excellent. Could be one of the best wines of the vintage and should age well over the next 15-20+ years.

By: Clyde Beffa Jr. | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/21/2019 | Send Email

One of the best wines of 2018. Tasted four times and each time we were blown away with its quality. 82% Cab Sauv and 18% Merlot. Blackish color-big, serious wine but it still has elegance and finesse. Fabulous texture Such a long, sweet finish. The best young Leoville barton I have ever tasted! Packed with fruit-seamless. Buy it and enjoy for a long time.

Drink from 2023 to 2045

By: Alex Schroeder | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/17/2019 | Send Email

This is full of dark, concentrated fruit and peppery graphite on the nose, with just a touch of baking spice and toast. On the palate, more red fruits come out with nice herbs and spice underlying, and great elegance and precision from the firm tannins and great acidity. Another shining example of the greatness from St. Julien in 2018.

By: Ryan Moses | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 4/16/2019 | Send Email

On our first day in Bordeaux, we tasted through 150 wines from the 2018 vintage. This turned every head in the room and was clearly the wine of the tasting. Leoville-Barton will have a lot of competition in a superb St-Julien vintage, but it is easily among the elite. Deeply colored with a subtle, compact nose, it follows through with resounding fruit in a textured and deeply fruited palate. A masterclass in composition, it is a precise and structured wine that will dole out a ton of pleasure over the coming decades.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Cabernet Sauvignon and Blends

- Cabernet Sauvignon has come a long way from its role as a blending varietal, however dominant, in the wines of Bordeaux. Today it is the most planted red varietal in the world. Identified as a descendent of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, the late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon needs to be planted in warmer climates to fully ripen. Its small berries can easily be identified for their distinctive blue color, thick skins and high tannins. And while the varietal has its own definitive characteristics: green pepper-like aromas and black currant flavors among them, it is perhaps most prized for its ability to convey terroir, vintage and winemaking. A relatively new varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon started making inroads into the wines of the Médoc and Graves in the late-18th century. Today it is also dominant in the up-and-coming Entre-Deux-Mers region of Bordeaux and can also be found in Southwest France. It is the companion varietal to Sangiovese in Italy's Super Tuscans and is planted all over Europe, stretching to lesser-known winegrowing regions like Russia and Lebanon. In the Americas Cabernet Sauvignon has found champions in every nook and cranny of California and among winemakers in Washington, where it complements plantings of Merlot. In South America, Cab thrives in Chile, but can also be found in smaller amounts in Argentina and even in Mexico.

Country:

France

- When it comes to wine, France stands alone. No other country can beat it in terms of quality and diversity. And while many of its Region, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne most obviously, produce wine as rare, as sought-after and nearly as expensive as gold, there are just as many obscurities and values to be had from little known appellations throughout the country. To learn everything there is to know about French wine would take a lifetime. To understand and appreciate French wine, one only has to begin tasting them.

Sub-Region:

Bordeaux

Specific Appellation:

Saint Julien

- St. Julien, the smallest of the four famous appellations of the Haut Medoc, is known for highly extracted, finely structured, Cabernet-based reds. It is nestled between Pauillac to the north and Margaux to the south. Like St. Estephe, there are no first growths in this area. Leoville-las-Cases, Leoville Poyferre, Leoville Barton, Ducru Beaucaillou, and Gruard Larose are the second-growths of St. Julien followed by Lagrange which is the only third-growth. Beychevelle, Branaire Ducru, St. Pierre, and Talbot, which are all fourth-growth wines, round out the grand cru classe chateaux. In the last several vintages, wineries from this appellation have been out-performing their traditional rankings making many of the wines from this region some of the best values in red wine today.