Saint Julien

The 2018 La Réserve de Léoville-Barton is effusive and boisterous right out of the gate. The estate's second wine offers tons of immediacy, with scents of blueberry, pencil shavings, lavender and menthol op...(read more)

Lovely developed rich nose, very pure. Some genuine richness, round, layered. Dense with purple fruit. Tannic but in a nicely crunchy way and still juicy at the end. Quite high-toned, it has natural drive and is juicy an...(read more)

Not staggeringly deep in colour, but as usual this has an indefinably classy royal purple aspect. The nose is warm with the ripeness of black fruit and a deep cedary complexity. Sophisticated complex flavour to go with t...(read more)

Light nose, lightish wine. Not the level of charm one might (vainly, in recent years) hope for - but elegant and fruity.

There's depth here. On the nose the cool dryness of a shady corner on a hot day. Leaf and fresh scents of violet and blossom. Hedgerow fruit in cool air. On palate there is flashy purple fruit in a cool, thick elixir-lik...(read more)

When we tasted with the talented general manager Matthieu Bordes, he explained it was a difficult year for them here. It was the worst hit of the big names here in St Julien by the frost and, as such, much fruit was lost...(read more)

61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. It's got a bit of real claret flavour and a nicely dusty texture but really this is only a shadow of the excellent 2010.