Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Decorated with a label celebrating 200 years of the Barton family in Bordeaux, the wine has touches of toast aromas with smokiness. On the palate, tannins give a dry core to the wine. It is ripe, but with a great freshness.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Released in a special bottle celebrating the château's 200-year anniversary, the 2021 Château Langoa Barton checks in as 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc, with the élevage spanning 18 months in 60% new barrels. It offers a healthy purple/plum hue to go with impressive depth and richness in its darker currants, spicy oak, and cedar pencil/graphite-like aromatics. With medium-bodied richness, terrific mid-palate depth, and a broad, layered, mouth-filling texture, it deserves 4-6 years of bottle age and will cruise over the following two decades in cold cellars. It's another terrific wine from this château. Tasted twice with consistent notes.
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Decanter
An expressive nose full of dark fruit, spiced and herbal elements. Clean and clear, juicy and lively, more of a light, lean delicate take, everything is there just a subtle version of the blackcurrant and strawberries, acidity and tannin profile. I do like it though, it's well made and still has an enjoyable juicy core and long finish. Likely to be extremely pleasant and easy to drink in a few years still with typicity. Same score as Primeurs but this was lovely to taste again.
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James Suckling
Complex yet subtle aromas of currants, tar, lead pencil, redwood, violets and blackberries follow through to a medium body, with ultrafine tannins and a crunchy and vivid finish. Just a hint of chocolate at the end. Special label to commemorate the winery’s 200th anniversary.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Langoa Barton offers up attractive aromas of dark berries and plums mingled with sweet spices and cigar box. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and seamless, it's polished and fleshy, with an enveloping core of fruit, beautifully refined tannins and well-integrated acids.
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Vinous
The 2021 Langoa Barton comes in a specially designed, one-off, hand-drawn label and a sustainable cardboard box instead of wood, to celebrate the bicentenary of family ownership. The aromatics have actually moved up a step since I tasted it from barrel: intense blackberry and wild strawberry fruit, crushed violet and just a hint of eucalyptus. The oak is neatly integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with surprisingly plush black fruit, a suave and harmonious Langoa with a dash of spice toward the finish. This is packed full of flavor and will be difficult to resist in its youth. –Neal Martin
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
An icon of balance and tradition, St. Julien boasts the highest proportion of classed growths in the Médoc. What it lacks in any first growths, it makes up in the rest: five amazing second growth chateaux, two superb third growths and four well-reputed fourth growths. While the actual class rankings set in 1855 (first, second, and so on the fifth) today do not necessarily indicate a score of quality, the classification system is important to understand in the context of Bordeaux history. Today rivalry among the classed chateaux only serves to elevate the appellation overall.
One of its best historically, the estate of Leoville, was the largest in the Médoc in the 18th century, before it was divided into the three second growths known today as Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Léoville-Barton. Located in the north section, these are stone’s throw from Chateau Latour in Pauillac and share much in common with that well-esteemed estate.
The relatively homogeneous gravelly and rocky top soil on top of clay-limestone subsoil is broken only by a narrow strip of bank on either side of the “jalle,” or stream, that bisects the zone and flows into the Gironde.
St. Julien wines are for those wanting subtlety, balance and consistency in their Bordeaux. Rewarding and persistent, the best among these Bordeaux Blends are full of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco and licorice. They are intense and complex and finish with fine, velvety tannins.