2018 Leoville Barton

I loved the 2018 Léoville-Barton. It’s a classic, structured, backward wine based on 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot that’s still resting in 60% new French oak. While never the most showy or opulent, this team always fashions a fresh, focused, incredibly age-worthy wine, and the 2018 follows suit, revealing a vivid purple color, notes of crème de cassis, crushed violets, salty minerality, and lead pencil shaving-like aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and incredibly elegant on the palate, it has building tannins, flawless balance, and integrated acidity, all making for a wine that’s going to demand upwards of a decade of bottle age yet keep for 40 years or more. The tannin quality here is exceptional and this is a wine you won’t regret having in the cellar.

The 2018 Léoville-Barton is fabulous. Graphite, gravel, crème de cassis, mint, violet, spice and exotic spices are some of the many notes that infuse this stunningly beautiful unctuous Saint-Julien. In 2018 Léoville-Barton has an extra dimension of volume and resonance, yet it never loses its super-classic mid-weight structure and regal bearing. The blend is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot.