Dinner with visiting family from out-of-town at a local Argentine restaurant on Monday 10/30/23 and I decided to lug along 2000/2002/2003 Leoville Barton for the mostly non wine-geek attendees.
As I’ve noted with prior bottles from the same at-release purchase lot, 2003 continue to drink well and please those looking for a happy compromise between very ripe and still classic Bordeaux characteristics. Uncorked at the restaurant.
The 2002, double decanted at about 2 hours before the 1st pour, had sufficiently impressed me with prior, mostly singular bottles to taste its evolution over the years, this en-primeur bottle was fine but not up to par with either of the 2003 or 2000. Definitely in the classic mode, but this slightly bulky-clunky wine revealed plenty of angular roughness when tasted side-by-side.
The 2000 Leoville Barton was double-decanted at about 2 hours before the first pour, another at-release bottle, and was simply head-and-shoulder above the other 2. Silky-smooth texture that effortlessly glides in the mouth. Fruit and just-right extraction, with incredible length, that made me reach out to sip more often than I did with the other wines. Plenty of great stuff in this wine that will please for many, many years.