TN: 2009 Château Léoville Barton (France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien)

WINE TALK
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  • 2009 Château Léoville Barton - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (1/16/2013)
    For the patient. Became dark and brooding with a few hours of air, with plenty of buffering fat, but I can’t say it ever really opened up that much. But what DID open up was great; deliciously elegant, but mostly hidden purple fruit, and copious but extremely fine tannin; overall an exemplar of the Leoville Barton style. If you’re gonna pop one young, do it SOON. Otherwise you’re in for a 20-year wait.

EDIT: Bumping to 96 pts based on day 2 performance. It opened up quite a bit, I’d say there’s still a nice window of time in which you can enjoy this wine before it shuts down. This is like drinking liquid tungsten, covered in fruit.

EDIT AGAIN: Keeps getting better. 97 points now. This is an all-time classic. Buy a case before it’s all gone (like I have). (97 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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This almost poked its head into 98 and 99 point territory but lacked just that last bit of complexity to do so. I’m tasting the 2010 at UGC tomorrow so let’s see what that brings.

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Uncle Bob’s notes on the 2010 is fairly revealing:

The 2010 Leoville Barton was almost impossible to evaluate because of its highly extracted, masculine, muscular style. However, it exhibits a dense purple color along with surprising amounts of oak, excruciatingly painful tannin levels, good acidity and a massive mouthfeel. One of the biggest, most backward wines of the vintage, forget it for a decade and drink it over the following 30+ years. Unfortunately, I have passed the age where it makes sense to buy a wine such as this.

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Parker doesn’t understand this wine and always rates it low. Fine by me, since it keeps the price down compared to its peers.

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Thanks for the note. I am a big fan of the 09s and what is magical is the texture, ie silky sweet tannins. I personally think that they will not shut down at least textually. I can’t say the same about the 10s.

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The 10s can be VERY different. A very good example is Calon Segur, a wine that has taken my heart on several occasions. But the 09/10 dichotomy is evident - or at least was evident, when tasted on primeur. While the 09 was already just silky and refined and oh so smooth from barrel, the 10 acted far more like a traditional St Estephe from barrel. Far more foreboding. I think both Leoville and Langoa are similar in that sense. For me, 2010 has the more evident tannic structure of the 2005 vintage, while 2009 is more voluptuous. There are cases where I prefer 2010. For example, I enjoyed a mini vertical at Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in late July 2012, and the 2010 seemed fresher and yet just as ripe and smooth. The most successful 2010s exude a perfumed freshness that the 2009s do not often match. Still, 2009 beguiles me. That same summer, I just loved the Langoa Barton 2009 tasted at the chateau - one of the best recent vintages of that estate I have had in a while. And the Leoville Las Cases 2009 had a spherical quality: good tension yet ripe and seductive, too.

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Good call, Nick. I just recently posted a note on this to CT and my blog - this was one of my highest rated wines from the 09 UGC tasting - Pichon Lalande was the only wine there that I put higher. The Barton is such a complete wine, with so much to enjoy.

Looking forward to comparing our notes on the 2010s.

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Great notes, I think I’m going to buy one for my daughter and son in law who got married in 2009 and tell them to open it on thier 20th or 25th anni. I’m thinking of picking up some 04 for myself soon. Sounds like a sleeper.

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Just got back from UGC. Surprised by how similar the vintage showed to 2009, although part of that could be explained by the fact that 2010 is a year younger. If you blinded me on 75% of the wines’ 2009s and 2010s unlikely I could tell the difference, including L-B (which as expected was one of the stars of the tasting; again I hope Parker craps on it).