| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > St Julien |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
One of the leading "Super-Second" growths of the Médoc. The vines are situated alongside those of Chateau Latour, just over the St Julien border. The young Cabernet vines and older Merlot vines are used for the "Petit Lion" label. The most Pauillac-like of all the Saint Juliens with a strong Cabernet Sauvignon character. Much of the Merlot now goes into Le Petit Lion. The vines further inland from the "enclos" are used to make Clos du Marquis.
The 2019 Léoville Las Cases is a brilliant young wine that will delight Bordeaux purists. Unwinding in the glass with scents of cassis, dark berries, cigar wrapper and pencil shavings, it’s full-bodied, layered and tightly wound, with a deep core of fruit, lively acids and an abundance of rich, powdery tannins. Concentrated and serious, much like its immediate neighbor Château Latour, it is likely to emerge as one of the vintage’s longest lived—and greatest—wines. Drink Date 2035 - 2065
Made from 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Leoville Las Cases is deep garnet-purple in color. It bursts from the glass with seductive scents of black cherry compote, creme de cassis, violets, and dark chocolate, leading to wafts of cedar and star anise. The full-bodied palate has amazingly fine tannins and great tension supporting the mineral-accented black fruits, finishing very long.
The 2019 Léoville Las-Cases is tasted from two bottles, but it is the second that really delivers the goods. It has a beautifully-defined bouquet with blackberry, black olive, subtle marine scents and touches of crushed stone. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain tannins, cohesive, quite high toned towards the finish with touches of mint and cedar. Very fine. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.
Currants and blackberries with crushed stones, bark and some conifer and pine cone. Perfumed. Discreet. Medium-to full-bodied with an integrated tannin structure that’s full of fine tannins that are weightless and seamless, building on the palate and coming out at the end. Needs five or six years to open. Texture of heavy silk. 79% cabernet sauvignon, 11% merlot and 10% cabernet franc. Try after 2027.
This is just a great Las Cases where the structure expands upwards and outwards, making your tastebuds sit up and pay attention. The scraping minerality almost feels like you are on limestone instead of gravel soils, until the tannins kick in and you hit a wall of slate, spice, liquorice, rosebud, violet. Dark autumnal fruits of blackcurrant and bilberry are set against smoke and flint, giving no ground, demanding you slow down and take your time. It opens up, but you need to work for it. Exudes authority, a wine that delivers the essence of the property. Harvest September 18 to October 8. 3.67pH, 90% new oak.
Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Restrained nose. Juicy, yet not too sweet. Lots of detail and length. Fruit almost masks the massive, ripe tannins. Really lifted and savoury. Masses going on here. Vibrant and almost painful acidity. Lots of tannin on the end. Luscious fruit and very dramatic. Thick and emphatic. 14%
Drink 2029
– 2055
More backward, deep, and layered, the Grand Vin 2019 Château Léoville Las Cases is 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc that saw 90% new French oak. Just awesome aromatics of pure crème de cassis, graphite, tobacco leaf, burning embers, and gravelly earth all soar from the glass. This is followed by a quintessential Léoville Las Cases that's medium to full-bodied, pure, concentrated, and regal on the palate, with beautiful tannins. The purity of fruit is spot on, it's flawlessly balanced, and it’s going to age for decades. While it offers pleasure today, I'd wager it will take 10-15 years to hit maturity and will be a 50+ year wine.
79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc. Barrel sample.
Deep purple-black to the rim. Dark and brooding with immense depth. Blackcurrant and graphite nuance. Beautiful lift on the palate, so much energy and power. Ingrained minerally freshness. Huge tannic base but the texture smooth and remarkably refined. Zest and force but absolute precision. Lingering and intense, stays on the palate for ever. One of the greats from this estate. (JL) 14%
Drink 2032 – 2050
The 2019 Léoville–Las Cases, bottled July 2021, retains the energetic, vivacious bouquet that I noticed last year from the barrel sample, offering intense blackberry, bilberry and still those faint shucked oyster shell scents in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with wonderful detail and precision, a mixture of black and blue fruit and enthralling clarity and length. Perhaps there is a little more creaminess in terms of texture toward the finish, a bit of "baby fat" that will be subsumed with time, so give this 8–10 years in bottle if you want to taste it in full flight. [Returning after 15 or 20 minutes, I discerned more pepperiness on the finish, and perhaps also less creaminess and more structure.] 14.02% alcohol. 2028 - 2070
The 2019 Léoville Las-Cases was picked from 18 September to 8 October and matured in 90% new oak barrels. Typically deep and limpid in colour, it has a knockout nose with penetrating blackberry, bilberry and blueberry fruit struck through with an accentuated marine/oyster shell element. The palate is beautiful, the fine-grain tannins framing delineated, mineral-infused black fruit. There is a clarity to this Grand Vin that places it amongst Jean-Hubert Delon's finest releases in recent years and it is blessed with astounding length. You come away with the feeling of a nascent wine boasting immense coiled-up energy that will guarantee its longevity. Stunning. 2026 - 2070
So structured for the vintage, but there’s freshness and vibrancy from the acidity. Full-bodied, extremely creamy and polished. Plush silk. Extremely long, linear and compact. 79% cabernet sauvignon, 11% merlot and 10% cabernet franc.
Composed of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Leoville Las Cases is deep garnet-purple colored. It needs a lot of swirling to unlock expressive notes of crushed blackcurrants, warm plums, and black cherry compote, with nuances of roses, cinnamon toast, tapenade, and cedar chest, plus a hint of iron ore. Full-bodied, firm and grainy, it is built like a brick house, so muscular and finely layered with wonderful energy and a very long, minerally finish.
The 2019 Léoville Las Cases is a blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 11% Merlot. Harvest began early for the Merlot, on the 18th of September, and the Cabernets were picked in October, finishing on the 8th of October. The IPT number (measurement of tannins) is 80—the same as 2018. The alcohol came at 14.02% (lower than 2018), but it does seem a little lower than this percentage, probably because the pH is a little lower this year, at 3.67. It is aging in French oak barriques, 90% new.
The color is opaque purple-black, with a nose that unfurls slowly in the glass, beginning with vibrant, expressive black fruit notes of freshly crushed blackcurrants, ripe blackberries and fresh black cherries, followed by a beguiling array of floral and earth nuances—candied violets, lavender, fragrant soil, underbrush, crushed rocks and black truffles. The medium to full-bodied wine dances ever so gracefully on the palate, demurely revealing tightly wound layers of of bright, crunchy black fruits and tantalizing floral and mineral sparks, supported by a rock-solid structure of firm, finely grained tannins and fantastic tension, finishing with epic persistence. Although the style is completely different, the barrel sample is behaving a lot like the Haut-Brion sample was when I tasted it, in that it appears to be holding just that little bit extra back right now. I have to call it as I see it today, but I wouldn't be surprised if when I come back to taste this from bottle, it shows me all that and a lot more.
I love it when a wine steals up on you, and you very definitely get that here, taking its time on the first attack then rapidly expanding outwards and upwards. Undoubtedly it will knit down as Las Cases can't help itself but do, but there is a creamy almost caramel side hiding among the tannins here. Beautiful power and layers of charcoal, slate, crushed stones, cassis, bilberry and tobacco - all displayed with elegance and tension. A long harvest of over three weeks from September 18 to October 8, 6.5% press wine used, a little more than in 2018 (where just over 2% was used). 3.67pH, 90% new oak. Drinking Window 2029 - 2045
The 2019 is 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 11% Merlot. The harvest was started earlier here than at most neighbours, with grapes picked by row rather than parcel to optimise ripeness and freshness. The resulting yield is 41hl/ha, close to average. We were unable to taste the 2019 before release.
