Chateau Leoville Barton (Futures Pre-Sale) 2009
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling - Decanter
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Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A major success vintage. The wine exhibits extreme richness of the fruit, with all its sweet blackberry flavors. It also has underlying firm structure, density and solid tannins. Bring in the acidity at the end, and this is both impressive and ready for long-term aging.
Cellar Selection -
James Suckling
Very floral, with fresh mushrooms and currants on the nose. Full body, with powerful tannins, yet polished and refined. Lovely length. Vibrant acidity. Well structured. Try after 2018.
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Decanter
This stands out above its sibling estate by some distance in this vintage - in fact I would say that the closing of the gap between Léoville and Langoa has been the biggest marker of the past decade for them. This is a gorgeous 2009 - rich, measured and slow-burning, full of rippling tannins and good acidity and freshness. The gorgeous, subtle smoke notes aligns with St-Julien freshness and elegance, with a punch of power. Great stuff.
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Wine Spectator
This is powerful Cabernet, with gutsy weight, but polished feel to the fresh plum, warm blackberry sauce, bittersweet ganache and roasted apple wood notes. Long and tarry through the finish, but still invigorating despite its heft. Will need some time to round fully into form. Best from 2017 through 2035.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Head and shoulders above its stablemate, Langoa Barton, proprietor Anthony Barton’s 2009 Leoville Barton is another massive, excruciatingly rich, tannic, potentially long-aged wine. Meant for consumers with old fashioned tastes, it boasts a dense opaque purple color as well as a bouquet of licorice, forest floor, unsmoked cigar tobacco and a hint of earth. The wine reveals tremendous denseness and richness, a broad, savory mouthfeel and elevated tannins in the finish. However, there is a sweetness to the tannins and no trace of bitterness and astringency, always a sign of a top vintage as well as fully mature grapes. Still a monolithic baby, this 2009 should be forgotten for at least a decade, and consumed over the next 30-50 years.
Rating: 93+
In 1826, Hugh Barton, already proprietor of Chateau Langoa, purchased part of the big Leoville estate. His part then became known as Léoville Barton. Six generations of Bartons have since followed, and continued to preserve the quality of the wine, classified as a Second Growth in 1855.
In 1983, Anthony Barton, the present owner, was given the property by his uncle Ronald Barton who had himself inherited it in 1929. Anthony Barton's daughter Lilian Barton Sartorius now helps her father in managing the estate. Together, they maintain the traditional methods of winemaking, producing a typical Saint-Julien of elegance and distinction. The Château Léoville Barton is the property of the Barton’s family and Lilian Barton Sartorius manages it with her two children, Mélanie and Damien.