Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Huge structure, huge potential, a wine that will bring out all the fruit and density of the vintage while remaining very fresh. Black plums are already showing strongly along with the dry core that promises aging. It's serious while alive and bright. Drink this major wine from 2022.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A vintage that tended to be underrated early on, due to its youthful austerity and the excitement generated by its two immediate predecessors, the 2011 Léoville Las Cases is emerging as a sleeper that will delight Médoc purists. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of cassis, dark berries, sweet spices, loamy soil, cigar wrapper and pencil shavings, it's medium to full-bodied, concentrated and structured, with chewy tannins, tangy acids and a long, penetrating finish. Built for the long haul, its austerity without asperity is immensely appealing in a world of ever sweeter, softer Bordeaux. Best After 2025
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Wine Spectator
This has some toast to shed, but retains a terrific core of crushed plum and blackberry confiture. There's a beautiful ripple of charcoal for texture, with honest acidity for balance and a bolt of iron that keeps this firmly grounded. A brick-house Cabernet. Best from 2018 through 2030.
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James Suckling
Intense aromas of currants and blackberries with minerals. Full body, with an serious density for the vintage, and racy tannin and acidity. It goes on very long. Reminds me a little of 1996. Very classic style.
Barrel Sample: 93-94 Points
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.