Léoville Las Cases 2025

One of the most serious, brooding wines of the vintage is the 2025 Léoville Las Cases, a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of dark berries, plums, pencil shavings and creamy new oak, it's medium- to full-bodied, deep and dense, with prodigious reserves of sweet but assertive tannin, lively acids and a long, muscular finish. This will require patience.

The 2025 Léoville Las Cases is the earliest harvest since 1989, starting on September 5 until September 20. Yields are 23 hl/ha, with a soft extraction using air pumps introduced in 2019, and it was matured in 80% new oak. It is the third vintage made in the new, impressive facility. This has another intense nose, quite flamboyant for Las Cases due to the warmth of the summer, with hints of pencil shavings and cigar box coming through with time. The palate is medium-bodied but very concentrated. Real depth and density here, very primal, with an intense, multi-layered finish that coats the mouth. Not a subtle Las Cases, nor should it be, though I aver that it will oblige long-term ageing. Drinking Window 2035 - 2070.

Deep, saturated purple. Sweet, perfumed and very dark fruit lead the nose, which has a salty, spiced quality. The palate is direct and pure, very chewy and structured with tensile fruit and high acidity. This is a strict and muscular Las Cases, a vin de garde that will need real patience in the cellar. But, the raw material is there, this is intense, pure with real direction and drive. The finish is expansive and very long, the coffee-accented wood spice a match for that dark fruit at the core.

The texture is fantastic, with superb aromas of graphite, blackberries and blueberries. Medium- to full-bodied with tannins that are pure and primary, like eating perfectly ripe grapes. It’s the high quality of the tannins. A very classic Las Cases. 82% cabernet sauvignon, 12% cabernet franc and 6% merlot.

The 2025 Léoville Las Cases is powerful, tightly wound and very shut down—in other words, classic Las Cases. In some recent vintages, the Grand Vin has shown somewhat softer contours, but the 2025 is really a throwback to a more muscular, classically austere style. It offers tremendous persistence and sheer power, but beyond that, the wine is pretty hard to read in the early going, certainly much more so than any of the other wines in the Delon stable. I expect this will need many years to be at its most rewarding. Based on this en primeur sample, the 2025 is a wine for readers who have actuarial tables on their side. 2040-2100.

Deep, violet-hued in the glass, this barrel sample opens with remarkably expressive aromatics of cool blue fruit and ripe cassis, layered with hints of hawthorn and integrated oak spice, signaling this estate's pedigree. The attack is immediate, initially juicy with mid-palate fruit that swiftly yields to a formidable structure. The tannins are powerful (IPT 82), dense and commanding, their presence further accentuated by a relatively low pH of 3.56. At this stage, the balance clearly favors Pauillac styled power over St Julien charm, with the fruit somewhat restrained by the sheer scale of the tannic frame. The Cabernet Sauvignon dominant blend combined with low yields of 23 hl/ha due to the tiny grapes harvested underscores the wine’s concentration and depth. Élevage is expected to extend up to 22 months in 80% new oak, a choice that should help absorb and refine the structure. A distinct mineral, saline edge emerges on the finish, though presently dominated by the tannic grip. This is the first vintage produced in the estate’s new six-story cellar, equipped with 120 fermentation tanks in oak and stainless steel (up from 40), enabling highly precise parcel-by-parcel and intra-parcel vinification. The addition of a vinothèque reflects the estate's long-term vision. Under the direction of Arnaud Delon, marking his first vintage alongside his father, Jean-Hubert Delon, the technical precision is evident in the glass. A wine of impressive scale and clear potential, though one that will require patience to fully harmonize. (PK) 2036-2055.