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A wine of huge concentration, depth and, most importantly of all, polish. This is an outstanding Las Cases with 85% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is a wonderfully layered wine, focusing on dark cassis fruit, with hints of liquorice and black toffee. It balances a touch of St Julien grace and sweetness, with the typically bold structure that one expects from this fine château marching alongside its neighbour, the great Ch Latour.
A wine of huge concentration, depth and, most importantly of all, polish. This is an outstanding Las Cases with 85% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is a wonderfully layered wine, focusing on dark cassis fruit, with hints of liquorice and black toffee. It balances a touch of St Julien grace and sweetness, with the typically bold structure that one expects from this fine château marching alongside its neighbour, the great Ch Latour.
The 2015 Léoville-Las Cases has an almost clinical, brilliantly defined bouquet of mineral-rich black fruit, cedar and veins of fresh mint. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin, beautifully judged acidity, exquisite balance and tangible energy toward the finish of graphite-infused blackberry and a hint of clove. This is one of the appellation’s most sophisticated offerings in 2015. Chapeau, Jean-Hubert Delon. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
The 2015 Leoville Las-Cases has the highest Cabernet contents in recent years, 85% and 9% of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc respectively, partly because some of the old Merlot vines were blended into the deuxième vin. Picked between 22 September and 9 October, a total of 15 days picking, it will be matured in 85% new oak. The alcohol level is 13.8%, higher than 2010 for example. Jean-Hubert Delon has crafted an extremely pure and tensile bouquet, almost pixelated with blackberry, briary, slate and oyster shell aromas that blossom in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied, svelte and sensual on the entry, the tannins a little edgy with a gentle crescendo: black fruit, tons of minerals, real focus and precision towards the finish. This is a superlative Léoville Las-Cases with the substance to suggest long-term aging will be repaid.
The 2015 Léoville Las Cases is simply captivating. Sumptuous, racy and explosive in the glass, the 2015 is endowed with tremendous energy from start to finish. An exotic melange of crème de cassis, graphite, menthol and licorice bursts onto the palate as the 2015 shows off its alluring personality. Spectacularly rich, dense and full-throttle, with huge tannins that are nearly buried underneath the fruit, the 2015 is an unusual Las Cases. It is also breathtakingly beautiful. Readers who can find it should not miss it. Drink 2030-2055.
A vivid, mesmerizing wine, the 2015 Léoville Las Cases is stunning in its beauty. Unusually rich and sumptuous for Las Cases, the 2015 possesses magnificent intensity and power from start to finish. Blackberry jam, charcoal, smoke, licorice and asphalt are some of the many notes that take shape in the glass, but the 2015 truly stands out for its vertical structure and overall intensity. At the same time, the 2015 is an unusually ripe, exotic Las Cases with much more flesh and voluptuousness in its curves than is the norm. In that sense, the 2015, is not at all typical for Las Cases. And yet it is striking. The 14.5% alcohol is the highest recorded here.
Composed of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2015 Léoville Las Cases has a slightly closed nose, revealing notes of crème de cassis, baked blueberries and black forest cake with touches of licorice, violets and Indian spices plus a waft of dusty soil. The palate is medium to full-bodied, concentrated and built like a brick house, with firm, ripe, velvety tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and spicy. Drink 2025-2050.
Richer and more demonstrative than the 2016, the 2015 Léoville Las Cases dodders up generous aromas of sweet berries, pencil shavings and loamy soil, framed by a deft application of creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, broad and expansive, with a fleshy core of fruit, succulent acids and a giving, gourmand profile, like many 2015s from the Northern Médoc, it's already quite structurally open today, and it will likely attain its peak before both the 2014 and 2016 vintages that bookend it. For many consumers, that may be an advantage. Drink 2025-2055.
This is an ethereal young wine with blackberry and violet aromas and flavors. Full body, very firm and silky tannins and a superb finish. Lovely length and purity to this. 85% cabernet sauvignon, 6% merlot and 9% cabernet franc.
At 94% (85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Cabernet Franc) this is the highest-ever Cab content in this grand vin. Very dense at first but full of power and elegance, with lots of energy. Beautifully made, and seems more Pauillac than St-Julien. This will be a very great wine.
(85 Cabernet Sauvignon, 9 Cabernet Franc, 6 Merlot) | 85% new oak. | 13.8% alc. | 76 IPT. This is the highest ever alcohol levels at Las Cases (mainly because Cabernet was harvested at 13.5%) and also the highest combined Cabernet percentage ever of 94%. Pierre Graffeuille, commercial director, explained that less and less Merlot will be used here in the future because of global warming. I had to take a deep breath several times while tasting this wine because it not only possesses extraordinary intensity balanced with extraordinary weightlessness but the sheer style and panache here is shocking. Utterly sublime in every way this is a tour de force for Las Cases. The tannins are immense but also fit and lithe and there is, once again, the dramatic spiciness from the July heat spike which seems to joust with the ultra-fine tannins coming from the stunningly ripe skins. The aroma alone is worth the entry fee. This is a truly great wine.
Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Bonfire char on the top. Then very smooth, sweet and beguiling. Easy to appreciate. No heat. Early developer, though there is no shortage of tannin here! Drink 2023-2042.
85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot 9% Cabernet Franc - highest proportion of Cab ever. 85% new barrels. More voluptuous nose than some earlier vintages. Bone-dry finish. Pretty concentrated and with some richness. Solid and mineral but not (quite) as obdurate as it used to be. Fruit and ink combo. Minerals like Pauillac on the end. Grabs the attention. 13.85% Drink 2027-2040
Two records set here: the highest ever percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon and the highest alcohol level at 13.8! This is a ripe style, but has the classic Las-Cases backbone, with cassis and fruitcake notes, fine tannins and excellent oak integration. Drink: 2023-32
Very tightly focused, with both charcoal and iron harnessing the core of dark currant and blackberry fruit flavors. Sleek in feel, but not for lack of depth, as this is brimming with dark fruit and terroir, just in a more austere fashion.
The 2015 Leoville Las Cases is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Merlot and is deep garnet in color. It prances out with showy scents of raspberry preserves, warm cassis, and chocolate-covered cherries, plus hints of tar, tapenade, crushed rocks, and unsmoked cigars. Medium-bodied, the palate is so velvety and refreshing, delivering delicately played black fruits with loads of earthy accents and compelling restraint on the finish. Drink 2024-2054.
St Julien is like the middle child of the Médoc - not as assertive as Pauillac or as coquettish as Margaux. It lies firmly between the two more outspoken communes and as a result produces a blend of them both. St Julien's wines have often been sought out by aficionados for their balance and consistency, particularly in the UK. Yet due to its middle child nature, it can occasionally be overlooked globally and as a result underrated by those markets outside the UK. Despite the fact that it has no first growths, it has several second growths including Léoville Las Cases, Léoville Barton, Léoville Poyferré and Ducru Beaucaillou as well as the celebrated châteaux such as Talbot and Beychevelle.
