Winemaker Notes
Château Leoville Poyferre is elegant, finely balanced and complex with intense color, velvety texture and excellent aging potential.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Based on a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Chateau Leoville-Poyferre saw malolactic in barrels and spent 18 months in 80% new French oak. Sporting a deep ruby/purple hue, it delivers big, powerful notes of blackberries, blackcurrants, crushed violets, tobacco, and a touch of chocolate. Possessing medium to full-bodied richness, a rounded, opulent texture, and sweet tannins, it’s unquestionably one of the biggest, richest wines in the vintage. Give bottles 4-6 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following 2-3 decades. Tasted twice.
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James Suckling
A red with currant and blueberry aromas and flavors and some citrus and vanilla. Medium body and creamy, integrated tannins. Shows finesse and depth for the vintage. One of the best from the appellation. Serious for the vintage. Drinkable now, but much better in 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine brings balance to the solid tannins and luscious fruits. Firm tannins plus layers of acidity give freshness and great aging ability. The wine has a great future. Drink from 2024. K&L Wine Merchants.
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Decanter
Slightly earthy notes on the nose, with brambly fruit coming through on the attack. A real sense of lightness and delicacy, with some attractive brushed tannins. Clear precision to the structure of the wine, and it opens up in the glass, allowing the initial austerity to fade as the fruit fattens up in the glass. Lacks the plush concentration of some vintages of Poyferré, but extremely enjoyable and accomplished, with plenty of house style. Take your time, be patient with this one and trust that it will come around a little sooner than the 2016 and 2018.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Leoville Poyferre needs a little coaxing to reveal pretty scents of violets, Black Forest cake and blueberry preserves with hints of raspberry leaves, roses, cigar box and fragrant earth. Medium-bodied, the palate has a quiet intensity with loads of subtle layers and a well-poised frame of soft, fine-grained tannins, finishing long and refreshing. Rating: 94+
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Wine Spectator
Warm and rich in feel, with layers of steeped plum, fig and blackberry paste flavors cruising along, framed by cocoa notes and backed by a swath of graphite structure on the tar-tinged finish. Shows a bit more heft than purity, but this is rock-solid nonetheless. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2023 through 2037.
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.