This is a gorgeous wine.
Yes, it is a young wine, and also yes, it is an approachable wine.
Wafts of graphite and no. 2 pencil, rich cassis, dry tobacco leaves and other earthy ground cover elements. Dark fruits and really fine red fruit acids. Modest ABV and mid-weight perhaps a hair more. Sweet chalky slightly chewy tannins with a notable streak of salinity. Start on these before you break into your 2005s!
(94 pts.)
I am very happy that you enjoy LLC.
I recognise that it is a top notch wine and worthy of its reputation but it has never moved me. Always proper and correct and a bit standoffish to my taste.
I have had quite a few over the years with consistent experiences.
I am having the 1986 next year alongside Mouton and Grange. Will be interesting to see how it goes
Like a tuxedo. But I look hot in one! 
Elijah 18 is the business
Yeah - take a shot of Elijah 18 first - then LLC tastes better…
Notwithstanding Robert’s excellent note, I quite agree! I do enjoy LLC but I’ve never had a really transcending experience with one. This is not helped by the fact that Clos du Marquis has improved so much that for me, it offers something very similar for a lot less!
You look hot in a vat of LLC???
I love LLC. The first thing I really learned when I started drinking wine from my father is if the wine said Leoville on the label, it likely was really good. Over time, of the three, I fell most in love with LLC.
Marvelous tasting of Leoville las Cases last night - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
An encouraging note. LLC is terrific if given enough time to strut its stuff. Until then, I can admire and appreciate it, but it doesn’t really move me. It’s too buttoned up and formal. I opened too many bottles too young. That got me resenting it in a sort of weird and illogical way, so I stopped buying it. I still have a few bottles of the 1996 around. That one’s in the zone.
I bought LLC in 1975, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1986, 1989 and 1990, but then stopped as the price kept getting higher and I was buying more and more Burgundy and less and less Bordeaux. Probably the one LLC (maybe the one Bordeaux) I wish I had bought was the 1996 LLC. I have had it a couple of times from others and it is fabulous.
And, yes, LLC is a wine best bought when one is fairly young as it takes a long time to mature. For example, the first time the 1982 LLC tasted even anywhere close to being mature (not the same as mature) was in 2017 - at 35 years old!!! The one exception I have had was the 1979, which I liked young but did not think it aged well.
I agree. I opened my '82 last year. It was fabulous.
It’s interesting how some wines touch you, and others leave you cold. With a couple of exceptions, (1989 and1996) I have gotten little pleasure from Las Cases. The property itself has the same careful austerity, and it was always a contrast to go from the Puritanical Las Cases, to the beautiful gardens of Langoa/Leoville Barton.
Even a recent bottle of 2001 – dare I say a middling Bordeaux vintage – was not quite ready to drink if you are seeking other than primary notes. Perhaps in time it will reveal the greatness of LLC, just not today.
My experiences with Barton are better than LLC. But obviously some sentiment here that you need 30 years of age. Probably the longest I have ever waited is around 25 years. Meh…
I love this wine and think it is very under-rated. Here is my note from early June with prior context.
It was just over ten years ago - 18 May 2015 to be precise - that we visited Ch.Leoville Lascases with BWE - and given our packed schedule that day we contrived to be nearly half an hour late. Which meant our tour was conducted cordially (grudgingly) in French. When we arrived at the tasting room, we were served various wines from the Delon stable starting with Potensac and culminating in the 2012 LLC Grand Vin. I remember us being bowled over by this exquisite expression of claret, with perfect harmony and equilibrium, which had not shut down. It was medium bodied, seamless with nothing forced. In short everything I look for in top class claret. It was one of the highlights of the week long tour and was way more impressive than the 2004 Latour GV at the next stop that afternoon. Later it would deservedly be named the BWE wine of the year in 2015. First thing I did when I got back to London was to buy a six pack.
Wind the clock forward a decade and last night’s bottle was the first from that case. At 13 years old it is still decidedly youthful, but it is approachable in a way that other earlier vintages of LLC could only dream of being. I doubt if it ever really shut down, because the tannins are so refined. On opening around 4pm I was struck by the purity and the integrity of the blue and red fruit, overlaid with lashings of graphite. It has 13% abv and is no more than medium bodied, with fine backbone of acidity. It is seamless on the palate and finishes beautifully. If you love the style of Leoville Lascases but have neither the patience nor the money to buy one of the bigger vintages then you should consider the 2012. It is more fun to drink than the 1982, the 1985 (controversial I know, but based on the last one I tried a few weeks ago), definitely the 1986, the 1996, the 2000 and the 2005.
Have to agree here. Recently had '04 which isn’t ready–but the description of “being left cold” is quite apt. Rather foursquare and without excitement, if technically well made.
Ian that is a wonderful note and great observations, thanks for sharing.
Damn you, Ian. It is going on the cop list. Great note, thank you for posting.
Circling back, finishing the last 1/3 of the bottle that I had under Repour. Interesting comments upstream, looks like a lot of folks find the wine classic but boring, and I can understand that. But I would imagine you would probably feel the same way about Leoville Barton. Or maybe even Grand Puy Lacoste. I will concede this is not a sexy wine, it’s that classically structured beautiful piece of symmetrical campus or institutional architecture, stoic, and built for the ages. It’s interesting that Bordeaux has been my most significant pursuit in this wine hobby, and I certainly have drank and enjoyed so many of the great left and right banks, but for whatever reason, this is one château that my experience historically has been rather limited. Partly due to the musings of @Howard_Cooper and some new friends that we have met here at the beach, one of whom absolutely adores this estate and has quite a bit of it well back to the early 80s, but I have been drinking more of it over the last few years. I have actually consumed a fair bit recently of vintages like 1983, 85, 86 and 89, and had an 82 about 4-5 years ago. These wines from that decade have completely hooked me. But I have no depth of experience with more recent vintages, so I have been dabbling. I have not bought the big monolithic vintages like 2005 and 2000, which I assume are aging glacially, but I have bought vintages that I happen to like, such as 2001, 2008 and 2012. Maybe this wine shines a bit better in these vintages if you are not sufficiently patient to wait 30+ years for this wine to express its true characteristics. And truthfully, how many of us these days have 30 years to spare. The good news is, it’s easy to find this wine from most great back vintages, you just need to open your wallet. It’s painful, but it’s rewarding. Consider me a fan.
I think comparison to GPL is apt. But I’ve always enjoyed those, find them more aromatic (maybe just the years I’ve tried) but yes they are rather four square on the palate as well. Could just be bias/expectations as to why I’ve enjoyed GPL more than LLC as it is about 3x the cost of LLC
I generally love Leoville Barton and while I’d call it rustic compared to LLC’s polish, do’nt find it borish or four square.
I did really love '85 LLC a few years ago. '00 (maybe too young), '01, and '04 have all been a bit disappointing given expectations.
I guess I think of Bordeaux generally as classic. I am not sure classic is boring, but it may not be sexy. Robert, what Bordeaux do you think of as sexy? If you really want sexy in wine, for me, the place to go is Burgundy, not Bordeaux. Barolo is another wine that can be sexy. To me, Bordeaux is about classic or even classy. LLC is just what I am looking for when I drink Bordeaux.
