Leoville Barton 2009

St Julien, Second Growth

Units	Size	Case size	GBP Price:	Quantities	Buy
12	75cl Bottle	Case 12	£1,125 per Case	Case	[Add to shopping basket]

Tasting Notes
Head and shoulders above its stablemate, Langoa Barton, proprietor Anthony Barton’s 2009 Leoville Barton is another massive, excruciatingly rich, tannic, potentially long-aged wine. Meant for consumers with old fashioned tastes, it boasts a dense opaque purple color as well as a bouquet of licorice, forest floor, unsmoked cigar tobacco and a hint of earth. The wine reveals tremendous denseness and richness, a broad, savory mouthfeel and elevated tannins in the finish. However, there is a sweetness to the tannins and no trace of bitterness and astringency, always a sign of a top vintage as well as fully mature grapes. Still a monolithic baby, this 2009 should be forgotten for at least a decade, and consumed over the next 30-50 years. Score: 93 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2022-2072 01 March 2012
This behemoth possesses massive extraction, an opaque purple color, huge density, extreme tannins, and a nearly endless finish. Everything is there, but the highly extracted style and off the chart tannins ensures that no one over the age of forty will ever see this wine hit full maturity. Nevertheless, there is a lot to admire, and it's good to taste a wine that will not be ready to drink for 30+ years. No compromise! (93-95+ Points) Score: 93 - 95 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2040 01 April 2010
Very floral, with fresh mushrooms and currants on the nose. Full body, with powerful tannins, yet polished and refined. Lovely length. Vibrant acidity. Well structured. Try after 2018. Score: 96 James Suckling, - Maturity: 2018+ 15 February 2012
Licorice, berry, grape and currant on the nose turns to crushed fruit. Full-bodied, with very fine tannins, pretty fruit, currant and mineral. A balanced and pretty wine. Not quite the intensity and blockbuster style of the 2005, but excellent. Score: 92 - 95 James Suckling, Wine Spectator 01 April 2010
Deep ruby. Sexy, exotic aromas of spicy blackcurrant, cedar, sweet tobacco and coconut hint at great depth and complexity. Then floral on the palate, with chewy, dense, rich flavors of black fruits, tobacco and chocolate nicely lifted by a distinct flintiness. Initially sweet and voluptuous, this turns slightly dry and chalky on the long, pure, sassafras-and spice-accented finish. A delicious if very young Leoville-Barton-and at a rare-for-the-vintage 13% alcohol. Score: 91 - 94 Ian D'Agata, International Wine Cellar 01 May 2010
Requiring little introduction, this is one of the most popular and well-loved Chateaux of Bordeaux, thanks to its consistently superb quality and reasonable pricing policy. Always in very high demand, particularly en primeur. 77CS 22M 1CF. Complex nose of pure blueberries, cedar and spice. Good depth of black fruit with crushed minerals and very fine-grained tannins. Excellent finish. Subtle, smooth, long and classic Barton. Score: 93 - 96 Albany Vintners, - 01 April 2010
Dense purple red, finely concentrated blackcurrant Cabernet nose with many layers of complexity, shows freshness above the controlled intensity of pure vineyard fruit, still shut in but a very great expression to come. Drink 2017-40. Score: 19 Decanter, Decanter.com Maturity: 2017-2040 01 April 2010
An intense nose with some strange oak note? Sweet, light, polished start. Pretty sinewy. A bit austere. Needs a lot of time. Deliberately slimline? But a very good complex undertow. A very slow burner. (17+ points) Score: 17 Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2018-2034 01 April 2010
Tasted at the château and the UGC. A blend of 22.5% Merlot, 77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 0.5% Cabernet Franc, delivering 13.1% alcohol. 84IPT. A dark garnet/purple colour. The nose is very well defined, taut at first but unwinding with aeration, crisp blackberry leaf, boysenberry, a touch of iodine and subtle hints of shellfish. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins, a sense of tautness here, like a coiled spring, silky smooth, surfeit with freshness, very poised on the sorbet-like, almost Burgundian finish with that sense of transparency that allows the terroir to show through. Superb. Tasted March 2010. Score: 91 - 93 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 31 March 2010

Tasting Notes

Head and shoulders above its stablemate, Langoa Barton, proprietor Anthony Barton’s 2009 Leoville Barton is another massive, excruciatingly rich, tannic, potentially long-aged wine. Meant for consumers with old fashioned tastes, it boasts a dense opaque purple color as well as a bouquet of licorice, forest floor, unsmoked cigar tobacco and a hint of earth. The wine reveals tremendous denseness and richness, a broad, savory mouthfeel and elevated tannins in the finish. However, there is a sweetness to the tannins and no trace of bitterness and astringency, always a sign of a top vintage as well as fully mature grapes. Still a monolithic baby, this 2009 should be forgotten for at least a decade, and consumed over the next 30-50 years.

Score: 93

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2022-2072 01 March 2012

This behemoth possesses massive extraction, an opaque purple color, huge density, extreme tannins, and a nearly endless finish. Everything is there, but the highly extracted style and off the chart tannins ensures that no one over the age of forty will ever see this wine hit full maturity. Nevertheless, there is a lot to admire, and it's good to taste a wine that will not be ready to drink for 30+ years. No compromise! (93-95+ Points)

Score: 93 - 95

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2040 01 April 2010

Very floral, with fresh mushrooms and currants on the nose. Full body, with powerful tannins, yet polished and refined. Lovely length. Vibrant acidity. Well structured. Try after 2018.

Score: 96

James Suckling, - Maturity: 2018+ 15 February 2012

Licorice, berry, grape and currant on the nose turns to crushed fruit. Full-bodied, with very fine tannins, pretty fruit, currant and mineral. A balanced and pretty wine. Not quite the intensity and blockbuster style of the 2005, but excellent.

Score: 92 - 95

James Suckling, Wine Spectator 01 April 2010

Deep ruby. Sexy, exotic aromas of spicy blackcurrant, cedar, sweet tobacco and coconut hint at great depth and complexity. Then floral on the palate, with chewy, dense, rich flavors of black fruits, tobacco and chocolate nicely lifted by a distinct flintiness. Initially sweet and voluptuous, this turns slightly dry and chalky on the long, pure, sassafras-and spice-accented finish. A delicious if very young Leoville-Barton-and at a rare-for-the-vintage 13% alcohol.

Score: 91 - 94

Ian D'Agata, International Wine Cellar 01 May 2010

Requiring little introduction, this is one of the most popular and well-loved Chateaux of Bordeaux, thanks to its consistently superb quality and reasonable pricing policy. Always in very high demand, particularly en primeur. 77CS 22M 1CF. Complex nose of pure blueberries, cedar and spice. Good depth of black fruit with crushed minerals and very fine-grained tannins. Excellent finish. Subtle, smooth, long and classic Barton.

Score: 93 - 96

Albany Vintners, - 01 April 2010

Dense purple red, finely concentrated blackcurrant Cabernet nose with many layers of complexity, shows freshness above the controlled intensity of pure vineyard fruit, still shut in but a very great expression to come. Drink 2017-40.

Score: 19

Decanter, Decanter.com Maturity: 2017-2040 01 April 2010

An intense nose with some strange oak note? Sweet, light, polished start. Pretty sinewy. A bit austere. Needs a lot of time. Deliberately slimline? But a very good complex undertow. A very slow burner. (17+ points)

Score: 17

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2018-2034 01 April 2010

Tasted at the château and the UGC. A blend of 22.5% Merlot, 77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 0.5% Cabernet Franc, delivering 13.1% alcohol. 84IPT. A dark garnet/purple colour. The nose is very well defined, taut at first but unwinding with aeration, crisp blackberry leaf, boysenberry, a touch of iodine and subtle hints of shellfish. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins, a sense of tautness here, like a coiled spring, silky smooth, surfeit with freshness, very poised on the sorbet-like, almost Burgundian finish with that sense of transparency that allows the terroir to show through. Superb. Tasted March 2010.

Score: 91 - 93

Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 31 March 2010

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