Winemaker Notes
This wine does not include the blanket 10% tariff imposed in April 2025. When the wines are shippable in fall of 2027, customers will have the option to pay any tariff in place at the time or to keep their wines stored in a temperature-controlled facility free of charge in France.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Complex, refined and truly mineral, this has natural vibrancy and freshness as well as excellent depth. Light midpalate concentration but also no sweetness at all. Medium- to full-bodied with chalky, stony tannins and a long, very tense finish. A vintage of delicacy and finesse. If you seek less alcohol and less power, this will be a great year to buy.
Barrel Sample: 97-98 -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2024 Château Léoville Las Cases is another incredibly classy wine from this team. It's a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Merlot, coming in at 13.1% natural alcohol and aging in 75% new barrels. Cassis, spicy oak, graphite, and tobacco all emerge on the nose, and it's medium-bodied on the palate, with a focused, elegant mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and the notable yet integrated acidity that marks the vintage. Complete and layered, this elegant Las Cases brings to mind the great vintages of the 1980s and 1990s. It will benefit from just a few years in bottle, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it evolve for decades.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 -
Decanter
Vivid and intense purple colour to the rim. Fragrant rosehip, violets and iris notes, deep and somewhat seductive in terms of aromatics. Supple and alive, the energy here is amazing. Tannins are chalky and filling, immediately covering the mouth with the clean and pure fruit underneath. This is quite massy still, but I love that it’s not at all too lean and focussed. More wide and approachable than some with a cola and liquorice and wet stone element. Chewy, ripe, concentrated and fun. Much less serious than I was expecting, so well crafted with a real element of drinkability and freshness. Not thick or rich, but there’s enough flesh to fill the palate. Ageing 18 months, 75% new barrels.
Barrel Sample: 95 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the wines of the vintage, and certainly one that's likely to number among the longest-lived, is the 2024 Léoville Las Cases, a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc and 5% Merlot that attained 13.1% alcohol. Unwinding in the glass with a pure, intense bouquet of cassis, violets and pencil shavings, it's medium to full-bodied, with terrific mid-palate density and concentration but also a seamless integration of tannin and acidity that's especially rare this year, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. Jean-Hubert Delon observes that the 2024 shares "the aromas and flavors of the 1986," defined by Cabernet Sauvignon ripened at the end of the growing season, though of course the 2024, lacking the huge power and structure of that vintage, is much more amiable than the 1986.
Barrel Sample: 93-95
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.