Saint Julien

The 2018 La Réserve de Léoville-Barton is effusive and boisterous right out of the gate. The estate's second wine offers tons of immediacy, with scents of blueberry, pencil shavings, lavender and menthol op...(read more)

Good wholesome aromatic fruit. Delicacy and precision, red fruit with high-toned red currant, then a bit more depth. There's really a very attractive richness here. A little spice. Goes on well.

The sunburn effect meant a loss of 20-25% of the Cabernet, so a lower proportion than they have been aiming for in recent years. 62% Cabernet 32% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot. Rich, serious, full-bodied. Very dark expression,...(read more)

65 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc. 13.6%. Quiet nose. Quite tight and herbal. Palate is ample, cool Cabernet, round and with finesse and purity. Very classically structured. Very dense and bruising...(read more)

The 2012 Langoa-Barton has an open-knit bouquet with red fruit and embers, almost ash-like scents, gradually offering a little more cohesion. One of the more opulent Saint-Juliens on the nose. The palate is medium-bodied...(read more)

The 2019 Branaire Ducru has a fresh and vibrant bouquet, very well defined with beautifully integrated oak, quite precise graphite-infused black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a ferrous opening, gritty in textur...(read more)

Very impressive on the attack, quite bright fruit with lovely concentration. Lots of lifted red plum and a creamy spicy weight. Oak presence does build towards the finish, but everything is in place for a longish future....(read more)

This is amazing - how do they do this?! Almost salty freshness, the same purity as the best wines of Saint Julien, with a real extra dimension of spice and purple exoticism. Juicy, suave, serious, tangy and long. That el...(read more)

Lovely developed rich nose, very pure. Some genuine richness, round, layered. Dense with purple fruit. Tannic but in a nicely crunchy way and still juicy at the end. Quite high-toned, it has natural drive and is juicy an...(read more)

59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot. More Cabernet than usual. I had rather hoped to see Marcel Ducasse here, since it is last year before retirement, but we were greeted instead by the maitre du chai, who said that he ha...(read more)

Fresh. Showing Talbot medicinal Cabernet, cool and supple blackcurrant, then firming noticeably, but still fresh, still crisp on the finish.

Not staggeringly deep in colour, but as usual this has an indefinably classy royal purple aspect. The nose is warm with the ripeness of black fruit and a deep cedary complexity. Sophisticated complex flavour to go with t...(read more)