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Clos du Marquis is not the second wine of Ch Léoville Las Cases but comes from specific parcels of vines under the great property’s ownership near its neighbours, Léoville Barton and Poyferré. This is a superb example of St Julien, with intense dark cassis and black cherry flavours. It balances approachable sweet fruits, with hints of cocoa. It has an excellent balance between good chewy firmness, refinement and length on the finish. Deeply flavoured and very long.
Clos du Marquis is not the second wine of Ch Léoville Las Cases but comes from specific parcels of vines under the great property’s ownership near its neighbours, Léoville Barton and Poyferré. This is a superb example of St Julien, with intense dark cassis and black cherry flavours. It balances approachable sweet fruits, with hints of cocoa. It has an excellent balance between good chewy firmness, refinement and length on the finish. Deeply flavoured and very long.
The 2018 Clos du Marquis is consistent with my tasting note from barrel. It has a perfumed, camphor-tinged bouquet featuring plenty of brambly red fruit, and maybe just a hint of dark chocolate loitering in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins and quite saline in the mouth with fine depth. It is not the most complex Clos du Marquis that I have tasted, but I appreciate the persistent black pepper aftertaste, which is quite Pauillac in style. Very fine. Drink 2023-2045
The 2018 Clos du Marquis is a powerful, heady Saint-Julien. Smoke, cedar, tobacco, menthol, licorice, iron, scorched earth and gravel all run through this potent, virile Saint-Julien. In 2018, Clos du Marquis is especially tannic. There is so much to like about Clos de Marquis in 2018, but it will need time in bottle. Best of all, it should be a solid value. The blend is 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc. Tasted two times.
The 2018 Clos du Marquis is composed of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc, with 13% press wine added back to the blend. Grapes were harvested September 18 to October 10, with yields of 35.5 hectoliters per hectare, and the wine has 14.5% alcohol. It will be aged in barriques, 55% new. The finished blend was put into barrels last December. Deep purple-black in color, it displays flamboyant scents of kirsch, crushed black cherries and warm cassis with hints of cinnamon stick, underbrush and chocolate box plus a waft of sandalwood. Full-bodied and built like a brick house with firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness supporting the muscular fruit, it finishes long and spicy.
The purple-fruit and black-olive character with violet undertones is wonderful here. Full-bodied, yet reserved and intense. Finesse. Graphite and minerality. Layered.
Graphite is a marker that you often find in LLC but typically less so in Clos du Marquis, but it's here in 2018. This is a glass-staining purple colour, with a lovely rich quality to the autumnal blackberry and cassis fruits, with the balance of St-Julien and the intensity of the vintage. This is a good vintage to try out this wine, as you definitely get some of the signature of its elder statesman sibling. 55% new oak. Yield of 35.5hl/ha. 3.64pH. Drinking Window 2025 - 2038
This is a restrained and not too demonstrative Clos de Marquis with lovely texture and length and also a silkiness which is incredibly attractive already. The tannins counterbalance the fruit perfectly and the overall feel is of an incredibly good wine with superb freshness and plum fruit which is not too dark or overbearing. I have no doubt that this wine will drink much earlier than the 2016, which is also a favourite.
Warm and fleshy in feel, with steeped plum and boysenberry flavors. Light ganache and licorice notes underscore the finish. Slightly brooding in feel today, but retains a healthy core of fruit.
Deep purple core and bright purple rim. Deep, dark and charry. Combination of ripe and intense cassis and a rocky, more savoury quality to add complexity, yet it's scented too. Tannins are incredibly fine, many layered, dry and yet supple. And great freshness. A very good second wine. Drink 2025-2038
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.
