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The late Michel Delon always thought that this was the greatest vintage he had produced. We often tasted it side by side with the 1982, because I always preferred the latter vintage. Of course, the two vintages are quite different in style, with the 1986 a monument to classicism, with great tannin, extraordinary delineation, and a huge, full-bodied nose of sweet, ripe cassis fruit intermixed with vanilla, melon, fruitcake, and a multitude of spices. The wine has always been phenomenally concentrated, yet wonderfully fresh and vigorous. The wine still seems young, yet it is hard to believe it is not close to full maturity. It is a great example of Leoville Las Cases, and another compelling reason to take a serious look at the top Cabernet Sauvignon-based Medocs of 1986. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2035. Last tasted, 9/02.Robert Parker | 100 RPMichel Delon, then owner, believed this to be the greatest wine he ever made. It’s not often the case that wines with this much expectation riding on them live up to the hype, but this one did. A stunning wine that, at 33 years old, still feels fresh, concentrated and with a long way left to go. The tannins have the characteristic Las Cases weight and definition to them, giving form and shape to the sweet berry fruit, but the overall impression is of welcoming, juicy pleasure. Harvested from 1 to 17 October. 4% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Drinking Window 2019 - 2035.Decanter | 100 DECSaturated dark ruby. Cassis, shoe polish, camphor and rose petal on the nose; this reminded me of a great vintage of Latour. Dense and extremely concentrated; explosive yet totally backward. There nothing playful about this infant claret. Finishes with extraordinary, slow-building persistence. Very serious juice; one of the great Bordeaux of the 1980s. Drink 2010 through 2035.Vinous Media | 98 VMFirm and focused, with beautifully articulated currant, raspberry and nutmeg aromas and flavors; very supple for such a lean-textured Bordeaux. Approaching drinkability, but it can use until 2000 to soften.--Léoville Las Cases vertical.Wine Spectator | 95 WS(Château Léoville Las Cases (St. Julien)) The 1986 Château Léoville Las Cases remains a stubbornly backward wine at age thirty-two, and I am beginning to wonder if it is just stuck in a seemingly endless adolescence or if the wine is going to turn out to be stillborn and never blossom. The bouquet offers up a still quite youthful blend of black cherries, cassis, a touch of mint, Galloise cigarette smoke, dark soil and toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, simple and powerful in personality, with a rock solid core, firm tannins and a long, four-square and recalcitrant finish. Maybe this will blossom one day, but I do not have a ton of faith in the wine anymore. And, even if it does one day start to blossom, it still seems likely to not be a particularly complex example of Las Cases in the making. If it does one day start to soften up and open, it should merit a score at the top of my range, but that seems less than a fifty-fifty proposition at this point. I should mention that I have tasted this wine three or four times in the last decade and my impressions have been consistent, so this is the wine, rather than a reflection of a possibly atypical bottle (Drink between 2025-2075).John Gilman | 84-92 JG

Of all the 2000s tasted in the line-up, this was the one that was most evolved, with melted tannins and exotic saffron spice notes. It’s a beautiful wine, very classic Pauillac, full of tertiary hints of truffle, soft menthol and undergrowth - signatures of an older Bordeaux wine that is wonderful to drink now. It’s probably the most perfect of the five for cracking open over the next few years but may not have the staying power of the others. Interesting to note how much higher the pH is here (3.85) than Leoville (3.5) considering it’s practically next door. 10% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Harvest 21 September 21 to 9 October. Drinking Window 2019 - 2038Decanter | 96 DECSitting next to my former colleague, Pierre Antoine Rovani, at one of the tastings, he commented that he didn’t like the striking green note in the aromatics of this wine, which I didn’t detect at all, and a subsequent bottle at another tasting did not reveal it either. I do think there is a hint of bay leaf and a meatiness to it. In short, I find this to be a spectacular Pichon Lalande. Dense purple in color, with loads of coffee, mocha, creme de cassis, and chocolate notes, this is a somewhat unusual blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and a whooping 10% Petit Verdot, with a little bit of Cabernet Franc. The Petit Verdot certainly gives the wine more of a tapenade, floral note, which I think can be interpreted by some as herbal. This is a rich, opulent, stunning Pichon Lalande that is beginning to drink beautifully, yet should continue to improve for at least another 10-15 years and last 30 or more years.Robert Parker | 96 RPMadame de Lencquesaing’s estate has produced a stunner in 2000. The perfumes, delicate and sensuous, give it class, style and make it very memorable. It is delicious now, but there are tannins there, and deep, intense fruit flavors, waiting to develop slowly and surely.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThis has pronounced bay and cassis bush aromas that impart lots of peppery and herbaceous lift, but this is hardly on the lean side as there’s a well of gorgeously pure currant and blackberry fruit notes at the core. The finish is sleek and glistening as an iron note takes over.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2028.Wine Spectator | 95 WSLot of currants and berries with a slightly stewed-fruit character. It’s full and round with soft tannins and a fruity finish. Needs to be decanted an hour or two before serving. Succulent wine.James Suckling | 93 JS(Château Pichon-Lalande) I had liked my last bottle of the 2000 Pichon-Lalande a bit better than this recent bottle at our vertical tasting, and I wonder if it was more a function of the context this time around, as this wine was the only really blunt vintage in our lineup, and perhaps in a different setting (like a horizontal tasting of the vintage in the Médoc?), I might have come away a bit more favorably impressed. It is not that the 2000 Pichon-Lalande is a bad wine by any stretch of the imagination, but the inherent elegance of this great estate is not self-evident in this vintage of the wine. The bouquet is starting to blossom, offering up notes of sweet cassis, currant leaf, cigar wrapper, gravel, smoke and cedar. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, chewy and rock solid at the core, with good focus and grip, well-integrated tannins and a long, powerful finish. This is a very good wine and perhaps, the customary charm of Pichon will emerge further on down the road, but for now, I have to rank it in the good, but not great vintages of Pichon-Lalande. If it develops the property’s typical elegance with further aging (and which is certainly within the realm of possibility, as the wine is still quite adolescent today), then my score will seem conservative, but I am not certain that this will come to pass. (Drink between 2025-2075)John Gilman | 92+ JGThe 2000 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has a strong minty bouquet that perhaps slightly overwhelms the terroir expression. I believe this comes from a high proportion of Petit Verdot (14%) that would have probably been eschewed nowadays. The palate is medium-bodied with intense black plummy fruit mixed with graphite and sage. This is a muscular though enjoyable Pichon, dense and almost brawny toward the finish, but what is missing is a sense of elegance and precision. Just a touch of greenness shows on the finish (in a positive way). A forceful Pauillac that will benefit from decanting.Vinous Media | 92 VMNo written review provided | 92 W&S

Beginning to open magnificently, the still dense purple-colored 2000 reveals a blossoming bouquet of blackberries, cassis, graphite and pen ink. Full-bodied with velvety tannins that have resolved themselves beautifully over the last eleven years, this wine is still an adolescent, but it exhibits admirable purity, texture, mouthfeel and power combined with elegance. One of the all-time great examples of Lynch Bages, the 2000 is just beginning to drink well yet promises to last for another 20-25+ years.Robert Parker | 97 RPThis has a dense but well-defined core of currant and fig paste flavors supported by a gorgeous graphite spine. Long and authoritative, with notes of bay, pepper, leather and juniper slowly emerging on the finish. Terrific structure and integration give this a chiseled feel. No rush here.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2033.Wine Spectator | 96 WSFinally rounding the corner, the 2000 Château Lynch-Bages is mature, with classic Pauillac darker currants, lead pencil, tobacco leaf, and spice-laced aromatics. With a deep plum color and slight lightening at the edges, it’s medium to full-bodied and has a layered texture as well as integrated tannins. A classic, elegant, yet still powerful Lynch-Bages, it delivers plenty of sweet fruit and a great finish. It benefits from an hour of air and will certainly hold at this stage for another 10-15 years with no issues.Jeb Dunnuck | 95 JDAnother wonderful 2000 coming out of its long sleep. Beautiful aromas of berry, tobacco, herb and spice that follow through to a full palate with round, textured tannins and lots of fruit.James Suckling | 95 JSTypical of Lynch-Bages in its sumptuous rich style, this is a resounding success for the team of Jean-Michel Cazes. With its sweet fruit, opulent but balanced wood and red and black fruit flavors, it is a wine that will develop relatively quickly but will certainly age.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WE71% cabernet sauvignon, 16% merlot, 11% cabernet franc and 2% petit verdot; 5.5 g/l total acidity; 13.3% alcohol): Deep ruby-red. Knockout aromas of blackcurrant, blackberry, mocha and cedar complicated by scorched earth and tobacco. Big, ripe and dense, with flavors similar to the aromas and a seamless, rich texture. Though powerful and rich, with a sensual mouthfeel, it maintains a graceful, light-on-its-feet quality. Finishes with ripe, fine-grained tannins and excellent length. Still an infant, but clearly a great vintage for this property.Vinous Media | 94+ VMNo written review provided. | 92 W&S

Is this as good as the 1989? Certainly it is lush and powerful, lingering and expanding in the mouth with sweet tobacco and cigar box notes, along with still young blackcurrant and blackberry fruits, all given lift by the trademark Haut-Brion aromatics. It beds in and shakes off early reticence after a good hour in the glass, suggesting that this is only just leaving its primary phase and has many decades left ahead of it. A great wine that highlights the success of Haut-Brion under the partnership of estate director Jean-Bernard Delmas, father of current director Jean-Philippe Delmas, and owner Joan Dillon the Duchess of Mouchy (president of the company until 2008 before handing over to her son Prince Robert of Luxembourg). A supremely confident wine that is hard to fault in its depth of expression.Drinking Window 2020 - 2050.Decanter | 100 DECIts bigger sister, the 2000 Haut-Brion (a blend of 51% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc) showed incredibly at the tasting, and for me is one of the three or four most prodigious wines of the vintage. A compelling nose of roasted herbs, scorched earth, sweet blueberries, plums, black currants, and a hint of graphite is followed by a deep, layered, sumptuously textured, full-bodied Haut-Brion, but one with extraordinary complexity. This wine seems more evolved and approachable than I had expected it to be at age 10. My window of maturity seven years ago was 2012-2040, but I would change that to 2010-2050.Haut-Brion can be among the trickiest Bordeaux to taste young, often needing a full decade before the extraordinary complexity that marks this terroir begins to emerge. I was thrilled to see how well both the second wine, Bahans Haut-Brion, and Haut-Brion performed in this tasting, and both scores are slight upgrades.Robert Parker | 99 RPThe 2000 Haut-Brion has long been one of my favorite wines of this vintage, and at 21 years old it remains a tour de force. Blackberry, briar, black olive, incense and earthenware feature on the nose, which displays wonderful definition and so much personality. The palate is medium-bodied with a mixture of red and black fruit, white pepper, clove and graphite. It just sashays along, fresh and vital, revealing enormous, breathtaking depth on the finish. This has certainly mellowed over the last five or six years, but the bottom line is that you will be hard pushed to find a better millennial Bordeaux. Brilliant. 13.2° alcohol.Vinous Media | 98 VMFrom a year in Bordeaux that started out with poor weather yet finished under ideal conditions, the 2000 Haut Brion is a gorgeous, incredibly classic wine from this estate that everything you could want. Blackcurrants, plums, scorched earth, tobacco and lots of mineral and earthy characteristic emerge from this gorgeous, still youthful, elegant, yet powerful 2000. The blend is 51% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Cabernet Franc, and while certainly beautiful today, it has another two to three decades of longevity.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDFor an Haut-Brion, this is huge. Every characteristic suggests power, from the dark color, through the knock-out perfumes, full of dark, brooding fruits. The flavors are black, intense and ripe. It is a delicious wine, surprisingly ready to drink. And yes, just at the end, there is a small hint of the delicacy and elegance that is true Haut-Brion.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThis 2000 starts with aromas of citrus fruit, currants, flowers, and fresh mushrooms. The palates leads off full and rich, with round tannins and a dusty texture. Plenty of fruit and sliced mushrooms on the palate, but it is still tight. Pull the cork after 2010.James Suckling | 95 JSThis is well-endowed with a large core of fig, blackberry and black currant fruit that has light mulling spice, bay and tobacco nuances peeking out, while the tarry finish cuts a broad and deep swath. Obvious heft, but the elegance wins out in the end, with a lilting sandalwood and sweet tobacco–infused finish that just sails on and on.—Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Best from 2018 through 2038. 11,817 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WSNo written review provided. | 94 W&S

A dense, traditionally crafted wine for those with patience, the 2000 Calon-Segur rivals the estate’s finest wines of the last two decades, the 1995, 1988, and 1982. But be forewarned, this wine has already closed down, something totally in character with all top vintages from this estate. This blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc exhibits a plum/purple color along with gorgeous aromas of creosote intermixed with spring flowers, black cherries, cassis, licorice, and stony, liquid minerals. A powerful, tannic, full-bodied and opulent wine, it possesses considerable structure that is reasonably well-concealed by considerable glycerin and intensity. Look for it to be at its best between 2012-2040. Patience, patience, patience!Robert Parker | 94 RPThe 2000 Calon-Ségur still appears quite youthful on the rim. The well-defined nose offers brambly red fruit, red currant, crushed strawberry, rose petals and cedar, and some sous-bois just loitering in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with refined tannins. This has mellowed since I tasted it in London five years ago, and touches of tobacco and tart red cherries enliven the finish. I have always loved this millennial Calon-Ségur and now it is à point and drinking beautifully. Aged in 50% new oak and 50% one-year-old for 12 months (less than nowadays.)Vinous Media | 93 VMThis is a solid, huge wine, with rich but very dry tannins. With its dense, almost black color, and its sense of brooding power, it promises long aging. It will never be in the opulent Bordeaux camp, despite its prominent new wood flavors, but will probably outlive all but a handful top wines.Wine Enthusiast | 93 WE(Château Calon-Ségur) The 2000 Calon-Ségur is a very closed, very grumpy wine at the present time, and this is a characteristic that it shares at the present time with a great many wines from this vintage. The blend here included forty-two percent merlot in 2000 and the wine offers up a very deep-pitched and adolescent bouquet of black fruit, inky tones, damp, dark soil, dried eucalyptus, coffee grounds and cigar smoke. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, closed down and quite dense at the core, with a gritty edge to its firm and chewy tannins, little generosity at the present time, but also with impressive grip on the closed, but very, very long finish. The length on the backend here really gives me some hope for the future of this wine, but it is really in a very difficult place for current assessment and I do not have a strong sense of whether or not this wine will always be a bit charmless, or if this is simply a passing phase and it will blossom to deliver some of Calons’ inherent breed with sufficient bottle age. (Drink between 2025-2065)John Gilman | 88-92+ JGThis shows a noticeable leafy edge, with tobacco, light cedar, bay and worn leather notes holding sway over a core of lightly mulled red currant and plum fruit flavors. Not as dense as the top examples, but everything pulls together nicely through the fine-grained finish.—Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2020.Wine Spectator | 90 WS

1989 was an early year, with flowering three weeks ahead of usual. Now at 30 years old, a floral aspect curls out of the glass, with touches of roses and peonies, followed on the palate by bilberries and blackberries, with a cigar smoke and eucalyptus finish. It’s still vigorous in its tannic structure, but it’s soft and supple enough to enjoy today. This bottle was recorked by hand at the winery last year, with five people checking every single one of the 5,000 bottles remaining at the chateau. The wines were topped up from magnums of the 1989. 3% Petit Verdot completes the blend - a variety not used in the grand vin since 1996. Drinking Window 2019 - 2040Decanter | 98 DECVery ripe, with raisin and dried fruits on the nose. You can smell the sun-dried grapes. Full-bodied, delivering firm tannins and a very fresh palate. Long and flavorful, offering currant, berries and all sorts of dark fruits, but turns lightly earthy and floral. This is a thoroughly complex wine. Just starting to really open into the mature 20-year-old wine it is, but such a great life ahead of it. Muscular.--’89/’99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now.Wine Spectator | 96 WSOne of the most youthful wines of the vintage, the 1989 Léoville Las Cases unwinds in the decanter and glass with aromas of blackcurrant and pencil shavings, framed by a discrete patina from its aging in oak. Medium to full-bodied, deep and tightly wound, it’s impressively pure and vibrant, though it lacks the mid-palate plenitude of the vintage’s best wines, displaying a touch of tannic asperity on the finish. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it continue to improve with further aging, though my sense is that the Cabernet Sauvignon might have been picked a little prematurely in this vintage.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RP

Tasted 7 Times Since Bottling With Consistent NotesThe 1986 is a highly extracted wine, with a black/ruby color and plenty of toasty, smoky notes in its bouquet that suggest ripe plums and licorice. Evolving at a glacial pace, it exhibits massive, huge, ripe, extremely concentrated flavors with impressive depth and richness. It possesses more power, weight, and tannin than the more opulent and currently more charming 1985. Anticipated maturity: 1996-2010.Robert Parker | 95 RPVibrant deep colour, this has masses of spice box and minerals on the nose. Of course, the 86 was famous for its power and tannic structure and this is still muscular and foursquare, but the tannins are beginning to yield and soften. Very fresh acidity and classic sweet cassis fruit with notes of minerals, underbrush and tobacco. Very pure and long. Impressively, the wine had been decanted two hours previously and was still evolving in the glass more than an hour later. Tasted at Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2015. Drinking Window 2015 - 2030.Decanter | 95 DECThe 1986 Cos d’Estournel replicates the performance from my 30-year on tasting that I conducted a few months back. The bouquet is attractive with mint and juniper berries that grab the attention of the olfactory senses, later accompanied by liquorice and graphite. The palate is understated on the entry but then builds in the mouth with wonderful spice and black pepper infused black fruit that form the foundation of this Cos d’Estournel. Sure, it feels masculine and structured on the finish and perhaps translates more the growing season that Saint-Estèphe. Yet it is very well crafted and should continue to drink well for another decade. Tasted at the Cos d’Estournel vertical at the property.Vinous Media Neal Martin | 92 VMNo written review provided. | 92 WS

I always loved this wine from the first time I tasted it in 1998. It has such purity and power yet it’s reserved and beautiful. It’s one of the best Calons ever. I drank a bottle with some friends in Manhattan last week and it was the wine of the evening. It was full-bodied with silky tannins and a focused and intense finish. Lots of currant and berry character and hints of dried spices. It’s finally opening up and giving real pleasure now like so many 1995 Bordeaux at the moment.James Suckling | 97 JSIncredible nose of crushed berries, flowers, spices and nuts. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a long, long finish. Powerful and solid. Builds on the palate. Give it time.--’95/’96 Bordeaux retrospective. Best after 2009.Wine Spectator | 95 WSTasted from an ex-château bottle at BI Wine & Spirits Calon-Segur dinner in London. The 1995 Calon-Segur was the vintage that raised the profile of this estate and heralded the start of the late Mme Gasqueton’s era. At 20 years of age, it shows no signs of reaching the end of its plateau. Far from it. It has an endearing bouquet that still seems youthful: brambly red fruit, asphalt and a light marine influence. Allowing the wine to open, there is a subtle winegum scent. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, impressive depth and backbone, the second half having mellowed in recent years, rendering this approachable; hints of secondary truffle and smoke notes emerging with aeration. It has been several years since I last tasted this wine, but it is one that seems to become more and more impressive with age. Robert Parker rightly lauded this Calon-Ségur at the time of release. Twenty years on, it is fulfilling all its promise. Tasted March 2015.Robert Parker Neal Martin | 94 RP-NM(Château Calon-Ségur (St. Estèphe)) The 1995 vintage is one I would like to do a retrospective feature on, but as it was the first year in Bordeaux where wines took a steep increase in price from their 1980s levels, I did not buy the vintage for my own cellar, even though the isolated examples I tasted early on I always found quite promising. In any case, this 1995 Calon-Ségur (which a friend recently blinded me on), was excellent in quality and starting to really drink nicely. The bouquet is precise and pure, wafting from the glass in a fine blend of cassis, cigar smoke, a complex base of dark soil tones, a suave foundation of nutty new oak and a topnote of tobacco leaf. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and impeccably balanced, with a lovely core of fruit, good soil signature, ripe, melting tannins and lovely focus and grip on the complex finish. Whether or not the overall vintage of 1995 is top flight or not, the Calon-Ségur is certainly a superb wine. (Drink between 2019-2050).John Gilman | 93 JGGood deep red-ruby color. Black cherry, leather, olive and a hint of crystallized berries; fresher on the nose than the ’97. Sweet, firmly structured and very nicely balanced, with strong but integrated acidity and very good flavor definition. Tannins are ripe and fine.Vinous Media | 91 VM

Revealing incredible quality and performing better than it did from barrel, the 2009 appears to be the greatest Pichon Longueville Baron since the 1990 and 1989. An amazing opaque blue/purple color is followed by scents of spring flowers, graphite, smoky charcoal, incense, blackberries, blueberries and hints of coffee and chocolate. Incredibly intense, pure and flawlessly constructed with extravagant layers of fruit and richness, this offering has developed beautifully under the management of Christian Seeley. It is a voluptuous, opulent Pichon Longueville Baron that may eclipse anything they have made in the past. This brilliant wine should be at its peak between 2018 and 2045.Robert Parker | 98 RPStraight away the deep, rich colour tells you that this is a sexy, powerful wine, barely hitting the next stage of evolution at seven years old. The nose is rich and spicy, and carries through perfectly onto the palate of exotic, spiced plum flavours with a tarry, liquorice edge. Great confidence on display. 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot. Drinking Window 2017 - 2045Decanter | 98 DECThe 2009 Pichon-Baron replicates its epic performance at the vertical tasted last year. It has one of the finest bouquets among the group of Pauillac with copious blackberry, mint, melted tar and graphite notes, fresh and supremely well focused. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, very well judged acidity. Harmonious with plenty of tobacco and pencil lead infused black fruit towards the persistent finish. Awesome. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.Vinous Media | 96 VMThis delivers a massive core of black Mission fig, black currant paste and roasted fig fruit, backed by alder wood, bay leaf, singed cedar and maduro tobacco. The finish lets a racy iron note take over. Long and authoritative, with gorgeous acidity giving the balance for long-term cellaring. Best from 2013 through 2030. 13,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 95 WSBold, smoky and chocolatey, this is a concentrated and massive wine for the Medoc, the alcohol showing slightly at the bold warm finish. Where is that T-bone steak? Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)James Suckling | 95 JS(Château Pichon Longueville) The 2009 Pichon Longueville is a very, very successful example of the “luxe” style in Pauillac. The nose is deep and very enticing (in its strumpet manner), as it offers up scents of sappy black cherries, cassis, coffee, Cuban cigar smoke, a lovely base of gravelly soil tones and plenty of nutty, beautifully integrated new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, utterly suave and polished, with excellent mid-palate depth, great focus and balance and a very long, ripely tannic and seductive finish. This will not demand a lot of time structurally before it is drinkable, but it would still make good sense to give it a full decade in the cellar to allow its secondary layers to fully blossom. A very well-made wine that is obviously inspired by the new Lafite style, and does an admirable job in turning out a luxurious example of the vintage. But should not a Comtesse be more of a strumpet than a Baron? Ah, well, it is all very much above me. (Drink between 2020-2070)John Gilman | 92-93+ JG

Performing even better from bottle than it did from barrel, this appears to be the finest Lynch Bages since the 2000, 1990 and 1989. According to the chateau, the 2009 has the highest level of polyphenols ever measured as well as high alcohol (nearly 13.5%). A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest largely Merlot with touches of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, it is an expressive, voluptuously textured effort with unctuosity and powerful, juicy, succulent blackberry and black currant flavors, low acids, a layered, massive mouthfeel, but no sense of heaviness or fatigue. This exquisite Lynch Bages should drink well for 30+ years.Robert Parker | 98 RPA powerful and ripe wine with a wide-screen personality, this makes a very bold statement without becoming a jot heavy. Serious tannins at the long finish suggest this has long-term aging potential. Drink now with a big steak or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019).James Suckling | 96 JSA dense, immense, solidly powerful wine. The ripest fruit overflows, paralleling the dark, solid tannins. As so often, Lynch-Bages is a blockbuster, dark and concentrated, with immense aging potential.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WETight and backward, this has dense, almost chewy layers of fig, currant and plum cake behind a very solid wall of cedar, roasted vanilla and charcoal notes. There’s serious grip on the finish, with an iron edge that won’t quit. Best from 2015 through 2035. 31,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSThis is a little more subdued than some right now, needing a good five minutes in the glass before revealing layers of rich olive, cassis, exotic spices, cracked pepper and garrigue. You get the heat of the vintage and the ripeness of the fruit, balanced by muscular, chewy tannins and gorgeous chocolate notes. This is great, although for me the 2010 just pips it. Drinking Window 2020 - 2040Decanter | 95 DECThe 2009 Lynch-Bages has an intense bouquet which is more forward than Grand Puy Lacoste, albeit without the same complexity. Layers of blackberry, bilberry, brine and a touch of graphite. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannin, slightly lower in acidity than the 2010 Lynch Bages, dense and quite sinewy towards the finish. It might miss the class of its peers but you cannot help but admire the brawn underneath its aristocratic coat. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits’ Ten Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 93 VM(Château Lynch Bages) I tasted two sample bottles of the Lynch Bages at the UGC tasting at Branaire-Ducru, but probably neither bottle was a pristine example. I tried to find time to swing by the château and taste another sample, but could not squeeze it into my already densely packed schedule, sop this note will have to suffice. I have given a wider range than customary for a sound wine, and I suspect that the ’09 Lynch Bages is probably likely to reside at the upper end of the range when all is said and done. The nose is deep, complex and classy, as it offers up notes of cassis, espresso, tobacco leaf, cigar smoke and cedar. On the palate the wine is deep, full, long and complex, with ripe tannins and quite a bit of structure on the finish. These samples were just not as vibrant or as long as I would expect from the ’09 Lynch, particularly based on the fine quality of the nose, and hence my equivocation on the score. (Drink between 2018-2050)John Gilman | 87-92+ JG

Let yourself go and sink into this deep dark chasm that will swallow you whole if you let it. Enormous concentration, but every bit as much finesse, the finish extremely long and fine. And this is just beginning to give its best! Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019).James Suckling | 99 JSThe 2009 Leoville Las Cases may be the most open-knit and forward Las Cases I have tasted to date. Analytically, it is high in tannin and the alcohol is 13.8%, nearly a record at this estate. This blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc was showing brilliantly at the 2009 tasting I did in Hong Kong and at a later tasting. It boasts an inky/purple color, monumental concentration and lots of sweet, jammy black currant, black cherry and kirsch fruit intermixed with crushed rock and mineral notes. As always, proprietor Jean-Hubert Delon has built a massive wine with exceptional precision, unbelievable purity and aging potential of 40-50 years. I was surprised by the lusciousness of this cuvee on several occasions, and how much more forward it is given the fact that Las Cases can often be forebodingly backward and in need of 10-15 years of cellaring (at age 30, the 1982 is still a baby in terms of development!). The super-concentrated 2009 needs another 5-7 years before additional nuances emerge. This is a brilliant, full-throttle St.-Julien.Robert Parker | 98+ RPThis is gorgeously layered with cassis bush, anise, roasted fig and plum reduction notes all framed by racy espresso and graphite. Very deep and very long, with terrific intensity on the finish thanks to razor cut from the seemingly endless iron spine. With its purity and precision, this mineral-driven Cabernet should cruise for two decades. Best from 2020 through 2035. 14,165 cases made.Wine Spectator | 98 WSStill a baby, the 2009 Château Leoville Las Cases is largely in the mold of the 1990 and 1982, offering a sexy opulence while staying in the classic, structured style of the estate. Based on 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc, its still ruby/purple hue is followed by a sensational array of blackcurrants, cedar pencil, green tobacco, exotic spices, and incense. With incredible purity, ultra-fine tannins, full-bodied richness, and that rare mix of power and elegance, this magical Saint-Julien is just now starting to reveal some secondary nuances and won’t hit full maturity for another decade. It should see its 75th birthday in fine form.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDA beautifully structured wine, with its tannins layered between the ripest black plums, damsons and black currants. It is opulent while remaining dense, concentrated and very serious. Certainly a wine for long-term aging.Wine Enthusiast | 98 WEThe 2009 Léoville Las-Cases simply delivers on the nose with intense blackberry, wild hedgerow, graphite and crushed stone aromas on the nose. You would put this down as a Pauillac if served blind, unsurprising given that it borders that appellation. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, silky smooth in texture with immense depth. It is blessed with quite brilliant delineation and the precision on the finish is magnificent. Chapeau Mon. Delon. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits Ten Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 97 VMBeing Léoville-Las Cases, it is, as you would expect, still pretty determined to play its cards close to its chest. And yet the exuberance and generosity of 2009 is beginning to peep though. For those of us who lack patience, these kind of years are just brilliant for checking out what Las Cases is all about: brooding tannins are just starting to stir, controlling a tight-knit cassis, cigar box, pencil lead and liquorice body. You feel the skill in the unpeeling of the tannins, opening to reveal the perky fresh core, and you can see just why this is such a great estate. Drinking Window 2022 - 2040.Decanter | 97 DEC(Château Leoville las Cases) The last vintage of Leoville las Cases to really move me was the 1978, so I am probably underrating this very powerful and seamlessly constructed wine a bit. The nose today on the ’09 is very deep, sappy and quite primary at this point in its evolution, as it offers up scents of black cherries, cassis, a touch of blueberry, dark chocolate, tobacco smoke and raw (but integrated) new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full and sappy at the core, with plenty of firm tannins, excellent focus and balance and a very long, still somewhat woody finish. There is little doubt that there is sufficient stuffing here to fully absorb its sixty-five percent new oak with further evolution, and I am sure that there are other tasters that will really love this wine for its deep and powerful personality. But for me it is a bit of a brute and I have a hard time imagining the wine ever developing any breed or nuance to go with its raw power. Very well made in its style. (Drink between 2020-2050).John Gilman | 90-92+ JG

A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol, the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003, only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous proportions, it boasts a dense purple color as well as an extraordinarily flamboyant bouquet of black fruits, graphite, crushed rocks, subtle oak and a notion of wet steel. It hits the palate with a thundering concoction of thick, juicy blue and black fruits, lead pencil shavings and a chalky minerality. Full-bodied, but very fresh with a finish that lasts over a minute, this is one of the most remarkable young wines I have ever tasted. Will it last one-hundred years? No doubt about it. Can it be drunk in a decade? For sure.Robert Parker | 100 RPDark and chocolatey with a lot of richness, but also a cool herbal freshness this is a very impressive Medoc wine that’s already delicious to drink. Very long, surprisingly supple finish for this château. A perfect wine. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019).James Suckling | 100 JSAn incredible wine in every way, the 2009 Château Latour displays the ripe, sexy style of the vintage while still offering classic Latour power, density, and regalness. Currants, spicy wood, smoked tobacco, graphite, and ample minerality all define the bouquet, and it’s full-bodied, with incredible density, perfectly integrated, ripe, polished tannins, and a finish that leaves no doubt about the insane quality of this wine. Based on 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot, and checking in at 13.7% alcohol, it’s drinking brilliantly today given its incredible texture and balance, and I suspect it has another 50-60 years of prime drinking. This is as good a Bordeaux as I’ve had and is as good as wine gets.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDThis is still closed, although a softening of the tannins is apparent. It has a gorgeous nose full of Pauillac power and finesse, with brambled fruits and touches of hedgerow as the Cabernet Sauvignon count heads upwards. The fresh core is clear from start to finish, giving that high-wire feeling that makes great Médocs so thrilling. There’s a sense of drama to the cassis fruits, controlled but with impact and a sense of purpose, leading to a chewy finish. This is barely bedded down and has the shoulders and backbone to carry it for years. Don’t approach it yet. Drinking Window 2024 - 2046.Decanter | 99 DECThe 2009 Latour is endowed with a simply magnificent nose with intense blackberry and cassis fruit laced with minerals and graphite, extremely focused to the point of overwhelming the sense. Wow. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin, multilayered black fruit infused with crushed stone and a hint of white pepper, though it clams up towards the finish as if to say, not yet. Outstanding. This is Latour firing on all cylinders. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.Vinous Media | 99 VMThis seems to come full circle, with a blazing iron note and mouthwatering acidity up front leading to intense, vibrant cassis, blackberry and cherry skin flavors that course along, followed by the same vivacious minerality that started things off. The tobacco, ganache and espresso notes seem almost superfluous right now, but they’ll join the fray in due time. The question is, can you wait long enough? Best from 2020 through 2040. 9,580 cases made.Wine Spectator | 99 WSA big, powerful wine that sums up the richness of the vintage. It is densely fruity, spicy with an enormous black plum and berry fruit character to go with the acidity. It’s concentrated while still showing such wonderfully pure fruit. The aging potential is immense.Wine Enthusiast | 99 WE(Château Latour (barrel sample)) Château Latour’s lack of graciousness this year was the talk of the journalistic circles during the week of the En Primeur tastings, as the estate was hell-bent on restraining access to tasting the 2009s here to only the best and the brightest. Naturally I was not on the short list of those allowed access (good lord, what would the world be coming to if I was on the list!), but thanks to the generous persistence of another wine writer (who shall remain nameless), I was eventually granted a brief audience with the Left Bank wine of the vintage. The 2009 Latour is a great classic and perhaps the best wine to issue forth from this great estate since the 1961. The wine offers up a fantastically complex and quite closed blend of espresso, cassis, black cherries, dark berries, tobacco leaf, a magical base of gravelly soil tones and a discreet framing of cedary new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite closed on the attack, with a rock solid core of fruit, ripe tannins and an absolutely stunning finish of profound focus, length and grip. There are a boatload of tannins in the 2009 Latour and it will clearly take several decades before it even considers being enjoyable to drink, but this is a great classic in the making and an uncompromisingly brilliant and traditional vintage of Latour. A seamless powerhouse from the old school. (Drink between 2030-2100).John Gilman | 96-98+ JG

This is what the Medoc is all about. The freshness and delicacy of this wine in combination with its serious concentration and firm core are totally stunning. Time has already worked its magic and this is already delicious, but has decades in front of it. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019).James Suckling | 100 JS(Château Lafite Rothschild, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France, Red) This wine is stunningly impressive but almost the opposite of the 2010 vintage. The year offered a warm, wet spring followed by a hot, dry summer and cool nights in September, giving a riper, more generous impression. A bit of smoke and spice on the initial attack with a ripe, plummy fruit character that is more black than red and a supple, dense richness on the palate that lingers sumptuously on the finish. This vintage will drink sooner than the 2010, yet should easily last as long. The finished wine is a blend of 82.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, and a half-percent of Petit Verdot. Picking began in mid-September for the Merlot and early October for the Cabernet, with 45% of the fruit going into the grand vin. (Drink between 2032-2082)Decanter | 99 DECThe main reason the 2009 Lafite Rothschild did not receive a perfect score is because the wine has closed down slightly, but it is unquestionably another profound Lafite, their greatest wine since the amazing 2003. Among the most powerful Lafites ever made (it came in at 13.59% alcohol), the final blend was 82.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot. The selection was incredibly severe with only 45% of the crop being utilized. A tight, but potentially gorgeous nose of graphite, black currants, licorice and camphor is followed by a full-bodied wine revealing the classic elegance, purity and delineated style of Lafite. It is phenomenally concentrated with softer tannins than the 2005, the 2003’s voluptuous, broad, juicy personality, and low acidity. There are several vintages that I thought were a replay of their colossal 1959, most notably 1982 and 2003, but 2009 is also one to keep an eye on. It is still extremely youthful and seems slightly more backward than I would have guessed based on the barrel tastings, but it needs 10-15 years of bottle age, and should last for 50+.Robert Parker | 99+ RPThis is stunning for its ability to take massively endowed fig, currant paste and crushed plum fruit flavors and harness them with ultrasuave freshly roasted espresso, black tea and ganache notes. A seductive style, long and velvety, with the dense core of black fruit and smoldering iron just waiting and waiting. Best from 2020 through 2040.Wine Spectator | 98 WSThe 2009 Lafite-Rothschild is quite high-toned and expressive on the nose, perhaps the most ostentatious of the top flight 2009s with upfront black cherry and boysenberry fruit, lavish new oak and touches of violet. The palate is sleek and satin-like in feel with copious dark cherry and boysenberry fruit, fig and dates, almost honeyed in texture towards the precocious finish that has an opulent bent, almost hedonistic, unusual for this First Growth. But it is kinda irresistible. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.Vinous Media | 96 VMA powerful expression of Cabernet Sauvignon, solid in structure. The wine is rich and concentrated, very textured. Great spice go with just enough fresh acidity, in this big wine.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WE(Château Lafite-Rothschild) The 2009 Lafite-Rothschild is a beautifully crafted wine that is all poise and seduction. This is the world’s ultimate luxury wine these days, and while the style has changed rather dramatically from the great Lafites of the decade of the 1980s, there is little here to complain about, as everything is done as perfectly as is humanly possible. The bouquet is deep and stunning, as it soars from the glass in a blaze of cassis, blackberries, coffee, tobacco smoke, a great base of gravelly soil tones and a generous coating of nutty, smoky new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, very suave and utterly complex, with a great core of pure fruit, moderate, refined tannins and stunning length and grip on the utterly seamless and completely seductive finish. This wine is crafted like a truly great Swiss watch, and consequently it offers up unprecedented accessibility at a very young age for those that will not be able to defer gratification, but it is so poised and beautifully balanced that it will also have no difficulty aging for many, many decades. Whether one prefers the old style of Lafite that took decades to really blossom or this new style that is the ultimate in seduction from the start is really just a matter of personal taste. There is certainly nothing in the makeup of the 2009 that is anything but exemplary in nature, and this is a beautiful wine. (Drink between 2020-2075).John Gilman | 93-95 JG

Extravagant and exotic, but still lively, this is a super-concentrated and elegant wine that’s already breathtaking, yet has enormous aging potential. Plenty of wet earth and mushroom character alongside the cassis and blackberry aromas. Super-long, perfectly balanced finish. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)James Suckling | 100 JSWhat a blockbuster effort! Atypically powerful, one day, the 2009 Haut-Brion may be considered to be the 21st century version of the 1959. It is an extraordinarily complex, concentrated effort made from a blend of 46% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Cabernet Franc with the highest alcohol ever achieved at this estate, 14.3%. Even richer than the perfect 1989, with similar technical numbers although slightly higher extract and alcohol, it offers up a sensational perfume of subtle burning embers, unsmoked cigar tobacco, charcoal, black raspberries, wet gravel, plums, figs and blueberries. There is so much going on in the aromatics that one almost hesitates to stop smelling it. However, when it hits the palate, it is hardly a letdown. This unctuously textured, full-bodied 2009 possesses low acidity along with stunning extract and remarkable clarity for a wine with a pH close to 4.0. The good news is that there are 10,500 cases of the 2009, one of the most compelling examples of Haut-Brion ever made. It requires a decade of cellaring and should last a half century or more. Readers who have loved the complexity of Haut-Brion should be prepared for a bigger, richer, more massive wine, but one that does not lose any of its prodigious aromatic attractions.Robert Parker | 100 RPInky purple in colour, this has a rich, intense nose of damson, blackberry and olive paste. The palate is generous in texture and weight, more broad-shouldered than Château Margaux - which is already beginning to show its florality. This is balanced but well built in every inch. The warmth of the vintage coming through as fruit ripeness, liquorice, spice and punch, with the beginnings of truffle notes. There’s no question of its excellence and its bonhomie. Drinking Window 2022 - 2044Decanter | 98 DECThis enormous young wine is among the most backward of the vintage at this early stage, with iron-clad grip holding the broad, deep core of blackberry, cassis and roasted fig notes in check for now. The finish is a torrent of dense, almost compressed layers of tobacco leaf, hot paving stone, singed bay leaf and tar that will take at least a decade to massage together fully. This one is for the kids born in 2009. Best from 2020 through 2040. 10,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 98 WSThe 2009 Haut-Brion has a less precocious but more detailed bouquet, more nuanced perhaps with warm slates baking in the summer sun, tilled loam and cedar infusing the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, perfect acidity, layers of mineral-rich black fruit. This seems to have gained more complexity in recent years and is beginning to flirt with perfection. It’s not there yet, but it is moving in that direction. Tasted at BI Wines & Spirits’ Ten Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 97 VMSolid, very structured, packed with dense and dry tannins. There is a core of acidity and darkness that gives the wine a brooding, powerful character. At this stage, it seems austere although it does have the weight of fruit typical of the year.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WE(Château Haut Brion) I was rather surprised by the shape and style of the 2009 Haut Brion, which seemed to have at least dipped a toe in the water of the Luxury Wine camp in this vintage. Not a direction I would take if I were the Prince of Luxembourg and in charge of the greatest terroir in all of Bordeaux, but I am not the Prince of Luxembourg. The wine is less ripe than the 2009 La Mission, as it weighs in at a slightly less heady 14.3 percent in this vintage. The bouquet is deep, pure and beautiful, as it offers up a fine mélange of dark berries, cassis, espresso, plenty of soil tones, smoke and a very generous dollop of toasty new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and intensely flavored, with a rock solid core of fruit, excellent focus and a fair bit of wood tannins still in need of absorption on the long, tannic finish. Today the wine is quite marked by the Taransaud component in its oak cocktail, which I have to believe is higher than the percentage used in the second wine. There is little doubt that this wine will eventually gobble up its oak tannins and smooth out a bit on the backend, but one has to ask why there is a need for so much new wood and why so much of it has to be so damn aggressive in its wood spice? These are not the aromatics or flavors of great, traditional Haut Brion, and lest we forget, this magical terroir is really where the entire Bordeaux world as we know it today once originated. Haut Brion’s historical legacy is so deep and wide that it needs take a backseat to no one on the Gironde, so let’s dial back the new wood next year and let this hauntingly mystical terroir once again become the focal point of the grand vin. Not that the 2009 Haut Brion is not a superb wine, but it so clearly could have been even better with a bit more of a traditional focal point. (Drink between 2020-2060)John Gilman | 91-93+ JG

The 2008 La Mission Haut-Brion has an open, feisty, lively bouquet with blackberry, briary, cedar, black olive and a light seaweed (Japanese nori) aroma. This is wonderful, an intoxicating bouquet. The palate is beautifully balanced with a fine bead of acidity, very focused with good weight and structure. This is a very convincing showing, at the moment more pleasurable than the 2008 Haut-Brion, just so fresh and complex, offering a discrete tertiary, smoke-tinged finish that goes on and on. One of the best 2008s out there. (Tasted at BI Wine & Spirit’s annual 10-Year On tasting).Vinous Media | 96+ VMA muscular wine, with well-defined tannins. The acidity is high, hiding the power and richness of the fruit behind. Then dark tannins come through, with other ripe fruits, finishing with a mineral character.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEA beautiful, high-class effort that offers incredible pleasure, the 2008 Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion is a blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc brought up in a mix of new and used barrels. Ripe black cherries, sweet currants, cigar tobacco, and exotic spices all emerge from this medium to full-bodied effort that has beautiful concentration, sweet tannins, and again, a pleasure-bent, even sexy character that’s a joy to drink. It’s capable of lasting another 30 years or more.Jeb Dunnuck | 95 JDLike a lot of wines in this underrated vintage, the 2008 La Mission was one of the great bargains of recent vintages. Its healthy blue/purple color is followed by aromas of blueberries, black raspberries, licorice, truffles, underbrush and forest floor. The scorched earthy/smoky character of this estate’s terroir has not yet emerged. Medium to full-bodied and concentrated with good acidity, freshness and delineation, this is a big wine for the vintage, but also very classic in its balance of tannin, acidity and extract. It will benefit from another 5-7 years of cellaring and should keep for three decades. The final blend was 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc.Robert Parker | 95 RPElegant and fresh, with beautiful crushed raspberry fruits - proof that 2008 is a vintage where terroir wins out. This all happens on the retro-olfaction: there you are thinking it’s a little under-perfumed for a Mission, but then it kicks back with a smoky swirl through the palate and the aromatics take hold. It’s very good, showing savoury black fruits on the finish and the gentlest hint of cigar box and cedar oak. Drinking Window 2020 - 2036Decanter | 94 DECFascinating aromas of crushed berry, plums, sweet tobacco and stones. Full bodied, with chewy and velvety tannins and a long, long finish. This is very structured and rich with a bright and tangy acidity. Needs time to come together, obviously. Try after 2015.James Suckling | 93 JSTangy and lightly firm, with cherry pit, pomegranate and blackberry notes, followed by sage and tobacco. There’s nice focus, with a tarry hint for added length on the finish. Rather tight now, with the edgy feel holding sway, but this should settle into itself nicely enough. Best from 2013 through 2018. 5,300 cases made.Wine Spectator | 90 WS

Its bigger sister, the 2005 Château Palmer (53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot), is one of the great efforts of this superlative vintage. Floral notes mixed with blackberry, cassis, plum, licorice and spring flowers soar from the glass of this dense ruby/purple wine. It is medium to full-bodied, surprisingly opulent (it has a big percentage of Merlot), long, multi-dimensional and textured. This wonderfully pure, stunning wine once again performs as a first-growth. It should drink well for the next 20-25 years.Robert Parker | 98 RPThe 2005 Palmer has been absolutely magical both times I have tasted it recently. Still wonderfully deep to the core, the 2005 is dense, packed to the core and luxuriously opulent. Even with all of that intensity, the 2005 remains vibrant. Lush red/purplish berry fruit, rose petal, lavender and sweet spice build into the towering finish. The 2005 is an epic wine that will have no problem reaching its fiftieth birthday. It is a rich, dramatic Margaux that checks all the boxes, and then some. I rated a second bottle even higher.Antonio Galloni | 98 AGThe 2005 was the first vintage where Thomas Duroux was in charge from beginning to end, having worked alongside his predecessor Bertrand Bouteiller on most of the 2004. Another great vintage in this all-star line-up, and the one that perhaps had the most exuberant sunny expression in the early years, although now at 15 years of age the tertiary aromatics are just starting to arrive, along with hints of earthiness and a savoury cassis fruit character as the Cabernet Sauvignon continues to dominate. There is a gentle truffled edging to the colour also, but the tannic frame is very much in play, and still cradling the fruit. A great wine that walks the tightrope between young and old Palmer, and between the welcome of a generous vintage and the natural elegance of a great Palmer. Harvest September 22 to October 7. Drinking Window 2020 - 2045.Decanter | 97 DECNo written review provided | 96 W&SAromas of black tar, chocolate and berries lead to a wine that is so effortlessly delicious that it’s easy to forget the power the Merlot gives it. The center is round, but dark, filled with sweetness; the outer layers are full of red jelly and toast. There are tannins, but they, too, are sweet.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEWhat a nose of milk chocolate, with raspberries and hints of plums and flowers. A wonderful nose. Full-bodied, with super velvety tannins and a chocolate, nut, and dark fruit character on the palate. The fine tannins and great balance make you want to drink this, but you should wait and let it all out. Pull the cork in 2016.James Suckling | 94 JSFeatures a bright flash of bay leaf and savory out front, with streak of tobacco and cedar amid the relatively open core of black cherry and black currant fruit. The long finish has a terrific iron note ringing through. Among the more approachable of this group, but no less serious.—Blind ’01/’03/’05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Drink now through 2030. 10,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WS

The 2005 Pichon-Longueville Baron is another concentrated, full-bodied 2005 that’s starting to drink well. Cassis, black cherries, tobacco leaf, cedar and classic Pauillac lead-pencil characteristics all emerge from this ripe, sexy, surprisingly rounded effort that has a stacked mid-palate and sweet, polished tannin. It’s impressive today but is going to cruise for another two to three decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 96 JDBaron was trapped in its oak en primeur, seeming flashy, luscious and soft. Now bottled and shipped, it has the unremitting tannic power of the vintage, balanced by unrelenting purity of fruit that somehow manages to anesthetize the monstrous tannin, to soften the extremely dry, mineral-bound finish into a caress. The wine may be bombastic, but it’s also succulent and as sweet as a ripe black raspberry. It’s easy to imagine this wine 50 years from now, in impeccable condition. Diageo Château & Estate Wines, NYWine & Spirits | 96 W&SA great, classic Pauillac, with its dark, dense, almost black currant flavors stirred together with immense tannins. The layers of dryness, fresh fruits, acidity and ripeness are all coming together into a magnificent structure.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEWeeks of sunshine preceded an entirely healthy harvest, leading to high expectations that have been fulfilled. This is still opaque red in colour, the resplendent black-fruit nose accompanied by toasty oak, though still a bit reserved. Very rich and velvety, it is highly concentrated with lavish tannins. Broad-shouldered and chocolatey, it has moderate acidity and is now beginning to open up, though it remains imposing and a bit monumental. Textured and long. Drinking Window 2020 - 2038Decanter | 95 DECThe 2005 Pichon Baron is in a gorgeous spot right now. Aromatically expressive and open, the 2005 is so expressive. Cedar, sweet pipe tobacco, mint, dried flowers, mocha and sweet red cherry fruit all meld together in a creamy, wonderfully expressive Pauillac. A long, persistent finish with terrific saline energy rounds things out in style. The 2005 is a super classic Pichon Baron that delivers so much pleasure.Antonio Galloni | 95 AGOffers crushed currant and blackberry on the nose, turning to tar and licorice. Full-bodied, with a solid core of ripe fruit and seamless tannins. Goes on and on. Very, very beautiful. A cross between the 2000 and fabulous 2003. Best after 2013. 20,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WSThe 2005 Pichon Baron has a dense ruby/purple color, sweet crème de cassis fruit, lots of cedar wood and forest floor, medium to full body, ripe tannin, and a long finish of a good 30+ seconds. This is a beauty and one of the most successful Pauillacs of this vintage. Drink it now through 2035.Robert Parker | 93 RP

Extremely lively palate, really quite bright, bold, powerful, chewy tannins fill the mouth but you get such power and concentration here. Feels more alive, slightly linear than the 2008, real tension still, so lively with energy that shoots across the palate. Such depth and just so drinkable. Tannins are mouth filling no doubt, they completely cover the mouth but so expressive, and elegant. Such refinement here but also such power. Only just at the start of its drinking window but one to carry on ageing, . First vintage with Didier Thormann as cellar master. 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot.Decanter | 97 DECVery clear and translucent with currants, blueberries and fresh mushrooms. Full-bodied with velvety tannins that are layered and beautiful. Together and polished with plushness and beauty. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 96 JSThis wine’s heady rush of flavor gave one taster goosebumps. She called it sexy. ’Formidable.’ Other technical descriptions included ’the shazam,’ ’has zazz,’ and ’unprintable. That’s some serious s#¡†.’ At the en primeur tastings, this ap­peared to be chunky and superripe. Now it’s massive, with dark extract and exotic spice, a sophisticated wine that ends on sweetness, bitter chocolate and dark berry fruit. With all the flash, it will give a lot of pleasure as a young wine, but it has the plump Poyferré terroir drive to sustain that pleasure for years to come.Wine & Spirits | 95 W&SHugely concentrated and packed with tannins, this wine shows considerable amounts of dark, extracted fruit. It wins out on impressive power, driving the fruit through the tannins, giving great richness.Wine Enthusiast | 94 WELéoville Poyferré’s dense ruby/purple 2005 is soft, round and juicy, with lots of blackcurrant fruit, plum and Asian spice. It is medium to full-bodied and, along with Léoville Las Cases and Saint-Pierre, probably one of the best St.-Juliens I tasted in this retrospective. It is surprisingly supple and accessible. Drink it over the next 15 or so years.Robert Parker | 93 RPThe 2005 Léoville-Poyferré really needed a number of hours to come together. An old school, powerful Saint-Julien, the 2005 Léoville-Poyferré packs a serious punch. Inky dark red fruit, iron, smoke, cedar, mint and white pepper lend striking aromatic depth. This virile, tannic Saint-Julien is a bruiser, but it is also pretty impressive. Tasting it feels like taking a step back in time.Antonio Galloni | 93 AGDark ruby red in color, with aromas of currant, blackberry, toasty oak and light cappuccino. Full-bodied, with ultrafine tannins and a beautiful, caressing aftertaste. Touches every part of the palate. Outstanding, but slightly disappointing after such a great showing from barrel. Best after 2009. 18,915 cases made.Wine Spectator | 92 WS

Power and elegance merge effortlessly in this superb wine. Its pure black currant fruit is tightly coiled, supported by just the right amount of firm tannins. Great aging potential. A triumph.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEThe 2005 Léoville-Barton is clearly one of the wines of the vintage. Powerful and strapping in the glass, the 2005 is a big, big wine. Huge swaths of tannin wrap around a core of inky black fruit, new leather, spice, gravel, mocha and licorice. The wine’s sheer density is impressive, but its balance is even more compelling. I might be temped to give this another few years in the cellar. Readers lucky enough to own it will find a thrilling, potent Saint-Julien that overdelivers big time. I loved it.Antonio Galloni | 96 AGDelivers breathtaking aromas of blackberry, currant, licorice and flowers. Full-bodied, with a solid core of fruit and supersilky tannins. Dark chocolate, currant, berry and licorice follow through. This is racy and beautiful. Best after 2015. 20,375 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSThis offers aromas of spices, dried dark fruits, meat and berries. Full and muscular on the palate, with strong tannins and a long, long finish. This is very powerful and chewy, but a little bit tight. This is a wine for the cellar. Don’t touch this until 2018.James Suckling | 96 JSPowerful and compelling, this blend of nearly 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot with a suggestion of Cabernet Franc was slow to open but with time produced polished aromas of red and blackberry fruit with hints of graphite, leather, and smoke. The texture is firm and tannic, but there is enough density to make it all work exceedingly well—one of the pleasant surprises of the tasting. Drinking Window 2021 - 2040.Decanter | 93 DECLéoville Barton’s 2005 has an inky ruby/purple color and shows fairly high tannin levels, but the balance is slightly better that the Langoa Barton, which is very hard. This is probably a 30-year wine and needs at least another 20 years of cellaring, and while the tannins are high, they are balanced more thoroughly and competently. With deep cassis and red currant fruit, the wine is earthy, spicy, medium to full-bodied, and needs at least another decade. Drink it between 2025 and 2050.Robert Parker | 92 RP

Needs coaxing out of the glass, as is true with so many 2005s even at 16 years old, but straight off the first nose you get the most beautiful nuance and turmeric-strewn spice. It’s exotic if subtle, with a creamy texture, grilled oak, black chocolate shavings, cassis and raspberry, all with the most beautiful sense of tiptoing through the palate, holding the line. Exceptionally well balanced, slate and smoked earth, giving signature St Julien finesse. You have really had to be patient for this wine, but it is utterly spellbinding, and starting to show its potential. Harvest September 20 to October 10. This one really does benefit from being carafed, because it keeps so much of itself hidden (I tasted it once in a carafe and once straight from the bottle). Brilliant, full of flavour. Harvest September 20 to October 11, 35% new oak.Jane Anson | 98 JAThis tastes of great Cabernet Sauvignon, with its black currant, cedar and herbs and fresh, juicy acidity. It is as fresh as it is rich, but it has a structure of dense tannins that balances the wine. This is one of the best wines from Gruaud-Larose for several years.Wine Enthusiast | 94 WEAromas of blackberry, meat and earth follow through to a full body, with velvety tannins and a rich finish. Decadent, balanced and very approachable already. I thought it would have been a little better than this. Best after 2014.Wine Spectator | 91 WSLicorice spice and tough black tannins form tight boundaries around this wine. Within them, sweet red fruit lends a gracious impression, gentle and refined. Age will allow the wine to expand as the tannins relent, but this offers impressive drinking now, particularly if decanted with steak.Wine & Spirits | 91 W&SGood red-ruby. Redcurrant, leather and game on the expressive if slightly rustic nose. Sweet and concentrated but a bit youthfully aggressive, and not showing the refinement or definition of the 2006. Strong nutty oak component. Finishes with substantial tannins that are a bit richer and more fully buffered by the wine’s middle-palate material than those of the 2006. It will be interesting to compare these two vintages in ten years or so.Vinous Media | 90 VMThe 2005 Gruaud Larose has a deep ruby/purple color, excellent concentration, and clean, pure black and red currant fruit, licorice and spice. It is medium to full-bodied, lush, and very soft and round. I’m surprised how drinkable it is already, although it is certainly capable of lasting 15 or more years.Robert Parker | 90 RP

A fabulous GPL. Perhaps better than the legendary 1982? It shows laser-guide precision on the palate with aromas of currants, cedar, mint, flowers and chocolate. Full-bodied and extremely finely textured on the palate, lasting for minutes. A joy to drink now. Get some.James Suckling | 97 JSMedium red. Very ripe aromas of plum and musky brown spices; redder in character and less precise than the 2006. Then big, sweet and plump on the palate, with full, mellow flavors of red berries, tobacco and mocha, plus a light smoked meat note. Finishes with sweet tannins and lingering, fully ripe fruit. This is showing its lush side today and is hiding its underlying structure.Vinous Media | 93 VMHas subtle blackberry, licorice and currant on the nose, with hints of mint. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and a very pretty texture. Caresses everything. Refined and balanced. A beautiful wine that’s hard to keep your hands off now. Best after 2012. 14,165 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WSPure crème de cassis, licorice and spice are all present in this wine from Xavier Borie. Medium to full-bodied and ripe, with sweet tannin and a nicely textured mouthfeel, this is a beauty that should continue to drink well for another 15 or so years.Robert Parker | 92 RPNo written review provided. | 90 W&S

A gorgeously silky, juicy and balanced glass of wine, this combines elegant richness of sweet cocoa and blackberry, with tons of power and a feeling of holding itself in check. This is signature St Julien, concentrated yet delicate, just an utterly lovely wine that has good acidity, with tannins that have melted into the rest of the structure and fruit that is still absolutely in control, followed by a saline edge to the finish. There’s a long road ahead still, but this is a standout Ducru. Drinking Window 2019 - 2040Decanter | 98 DECThe 2005 Ducru Beaucaillou is a 10,000-case blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon and 33% Merlot (they used to produce 18,000-20,000 cases). It is an exceptionally powerful wine with a dense purple color, superb intensity, and a beautiful, sweet nose of spring flowers, raspberries, blueberries, graphite, and creme de cassis. Full-bodied with fabulous concentration, exceptionally high tannin, good acidity, and massive layers of richness that build incrementally on the palate, this monumental effort is more structured than their outstanding 2003. It may be the finest wine produced at this estate since the 1982 and 1961 Ducrus. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2050.Robert Parker | 97 RPThis offers dreamy aromas of singed mesquite and warm fruitcake that meld into a lush swath of mulled currant, fig and boysenberry fruit flavors. Black tea and incense notes skitter throughout, with a mouthwatering iron edge buried deeply.—Blind ’01/’03/’05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 10,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSA nice, complex wine with notes of flowers, berries and leather in the nose. Full-bodied, with pure fruit that turns from light raspberry to cherry jam. This is balanced and silky, a beautiful harmony. Give this some time if you can.James Suckling | 95 JS94-96 Barrel sample. Huge blackcurrant fruits dominate a wine that is powerful and showing very ripe. There are flavors of smoky, balanced tannins, bitter cherries, black figs. As all the great wines in 2005, it finishes with a delicious lift of acidity.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WE(contains a relatively high percentage of merlot, in the range of 30%) Good deep ruby-red. Wonderfully sweet, aromatic nose combines currant, chocolate and cedary oak. Fat, lush and silky, with atypical volume to the flavors of plum, tobacco and chocolate. Wonderfully supple, plump wine with layers of flavor, thoroughly sweet tannins and compelling aromatic persistence. Today the wine’s substantial baby fat is masking its impressive underlying power. According to Borie, this 2005 combines the best traits of the chateau’s 2003 and 2000.Vinous Media | 94 VMDucru delivers absolute deliciousness in 2005, a refined and elegant pleasure that just feels right in the end. It could be that after all the sleek, floral beauty, the polished chocolate-truffle tannin, there’s a formidable grip that tightens around the finish. Suddenly it feels as hard as iron. If the aromatic beauty of the fruit can survive while the tannin matures, this could well be a wine to covet in 20 years.Wine & Spirits | 94 W&S(Château Ducru-Beaucaillou) The 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou, which was also raised in one hundred percent new wood, will have no difficulty carrying its new oak to the finish line and is a superb young vintage of this fabled estate. The nose is deep, pure and shows off a lovely tang to its aromatic mélange of black cherries, cassis, a touch of blood orange, tobacco leaf, soil and cedar. On the palate the wine is fullish, deep and rock solid at the core, with a nice girdle of tangy acidity, excellent focus and grip and a very long, ripely tannic finish. Today there is just a touch of oak spice that sticks out on the backend, but this should be absorbed with no difficulty over the next couple of years and the 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou should prove to be one of the reference point vintages for this property. (Drink between 2020-2070)John Gilman | 93 JG

The purity of fruit in this is fascinating with plums, currants and other dark fruits. Then there is another layer of spices and chocolate. So much cassis. Full and very layered with chewy polished tannins and a long, long finish. Just starting to open. Changes all the time.James Suckling | 99 JSA lesson in genuinely great wine, the 2005 Cos d’Estournel is a monster of a wine that delivers an incredible level of opulence and decadence while staying weightless and elegant on the palate, with no sensation of heaviness. This is what truly great wine is all about. Based on 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, and the final 4% Cabernet Franc, this dense ruby/plum-hued Saint-Estèphe offers up a monster bouquet of blackcurrants, unsmoked tobacco, licorice, toasted bread, classy oak, and cedar pencil. While it starts out reserved and almost understated, this is a wine that blossoms with air (I drank this bottle over two days, showing best on day two). Full-bodied, powerful, and decadent on the palate, with moderate acidity, it has a wealth of silky tannins, a stacked mid-palate, and a great, great finish. It reminds me of the 2009, if not an improved 1982, or even a slightly fresher 2003. Regardless, it’s a thrilling wine in every sense, and I fear with the focus on acidity and freshness in today’s wine world, we might not see this style of great wine for some time.Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDWhile I am not convinced the 2005 Cos d’Estournel will eclipse the compelling 2003 Cos, it is unquestionably another superb classic from proprietor Michel Reybier and his brilliant winemaker, Jean-Guillaume Prats. Made from an unusually high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon (78%) and the balance mostly Merlot with a tiny dollop of Cabernet Franc, this superb effort requires plenty of time in the bottle. It boasts an inky/purple color as well as a glorious perfume of licorice, Asian spices, creme de cassis, blackberries, and toasty oak. This full-bodied St.-Estephe is exceptionally powerful, pure, and dense with a layered mid-palate that builds like a skyscraper. While there are massive tannins, they are remarkably velvety and well-integrated in this big, backstrapping effort that should enjoy an unusually long life. Forget it for 8-10 years, and drink it between 2017-2040.Robert Parker | 98 RPThe 2005 Cos d’Estournel is a vintage that I have encountered several times over the years. Here, as part of a 2005 horizontal of the top Bordeaux, it mirrors previous bottles. It has a tightly-wound bouquet at first with blackberry, scorched earth, juniper and hints of leather. More backward that its peers and clearly requiring another three to five years or an extremely long decant. The palate is robust, masculine, dense and yet comes with fine tannins and plenty of energy. It has a precision that derives from its propitious terroir and yet there is no question that it needs 15, perhaps 20 years before it will reach its drinking plateau. Tasted at the Goedhuis’s 2005 Bordeaux pre-dinner tasting at the Savoy in London.Antonio Galloni | 97 AGSaint-Estèphe has a reputation for tannins, and this 2005 Cos lives up to that. But it does much more, because the tannins add richness along with intensely ripe black fruits, dark plums and figs. The dense tannins are finely balanced with fresh acidity, and a long-lasting aftertaste. Impressive.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEStill tight despite a gorgeous wave of rich melted licorice, fig bread, warm plum compote and steeped blackberry flavors. Lovely alder, black tea and balsam wood details give this added range and a sense of detail through the finish before a wall of graphite-edged grip shows up. We’re still in wait mode here.—Blind ’01/’03/’05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 25,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSThis inky, dark wine is seductive and immediately approachable, with a nose of sweet black fruit touched with honey and a bit of earth. The texture is silky and dense but not lacking in substance or structure. The blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot with a bit of Cabernet Franc was one of the leading lights in the appellation in 2005, as is often the case. Drinking now, it should continue to improve for decades. (Drink between 2021-2040)Decanter | 95 DECJean-Guillaume Prats allowed the vintage to steer Cos toward unprecedented power in 2005; the wine comes in at 13.95 percent alcohol, and it’s grand in every sense. It smells like first-growth juice, with the kind of oak integration that accentuates the wine’s beauty rather than masks it. You can feel the tart black cherry fruit and the black tannin along with a burn in the end that is distinct to this vintage. With several days of air, the tumble and rush of the structure settles and the fruit becomes all-powerful, a taut density of sweet purple plum. There’s little doubt this will be an astonishing wine at 12 to 15 years of age; its ripeness leads into uncharted territory after that, which makes Cos one of the more interesting wines of the vintage to watch. Diageo Château & Estate Wines, NYWine & Spirits | 95 W&S

The 1986 possesses outstanding richness, a deep color, medium body, a graceful, harmonious texture, and superb length. The penetrating fragrance of cedar, chestnuts, minerals, and rich fruit is a hallmark of this wine. Powerful, dense, rich, and tannic, as well as medium to full-bodied, with awesome extraction of fruit, this Lafite has immense potential. Patience is required. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2030. Last tasted 11/94.Robert Parker | 100 RPWe are in perfectly-aged claret territory here, the most beautiful impression of a wine at its plateau. It’s perfectly ready to drink and is still generous, with a long life ahead of it. Its spicy notes, touches of pencil lead and still-concentrated cassis combine with menthol, buttery leather and that classic Médoc saline, mineral-edged flourish - this is the height of well-aged Cabernet Sauvignon. Drinking Window 2018 - 2040.Decanter | 100 DECThe 1986 Lafite-Rothschild is a great wine although over several recent encounters it is never a convincing "perfect" wine. This mirrors the bottle I tasted at the property in 2016: blackberry and graphite on the nose, gawky at first, but coalescing with time. The palate is well balanced with firm tannins, strong graphite scents unfolding with time, superb energy if not delivering quite the finesse and precision that the very best Lafite-Rothschild will bestow. This is a wine that benefits from long decanting, say five or six hours, though it never quite reaches the ethereal heights that it could have done. Tasted at the International Business & Wine First Growth Dinner at the Four Seasons.Vinous Media | 96 VMA firm, young wine. Dark ruby color. Intense aromas of blackberry and mint. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and a long finish. Still needs time.--Bordeaux retrospective. Best after 2003.Wine Spectator | 94 WS

Still stubbornly backward, yet beginning to budge from its pre-adolescent stage, this dense, murky ruby/purple-colored wine offers up notes of graphite, sweet caramel, black cherry jam, cassis, and minerals. The nose takes some coaxing, and the decanting of 2-4 hours prior to service is highly recommended. For such a low acid wine, it is huge, well-delineated, extremely concentrated, and surprisingly fresh. Perhaps because I lean more toward the hedonistic view of wine than the late Michel Delon, I have always preferred this to the 1986, but the truth is that any lover of classic Medoc should have both vintages in their cellar. This wine has monstrous levels of glycerin, extract, and density, but still seems very youthful, and tastes more like a 7 to 8-year-old Bordeaux than one that is past its twentieth birthday. A monumental effort. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2035. Last tasted, 9/02.Robert Parker | 100 RPTasted at the domaine, the 1982 Leoville Las Cases is just about pure perfection, and while certainly mature, it has plenty of life ahead of it. Thrilling notes of blackcurrants, kirsch, tobacco leaf, cedar box, menthol, and exotic spices all emerge from this seamless, powerful yet magically elegant Leoville Las Cases. Opening up in the glass, with a smoky, singular character, it’s an incredible wine from this terroir that has an almost Latour-like regal quality. It should continue drinking well for another 10-15 years and I’m sure will keep even longer.Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDIt’s impossible, I know, to believe that a St-Julien might not be perfectly ready to drink at this ripe old age, but here we are, face to face with the conundrum that is Léoville Las Cases. You’ll be happy to hear I had the 1981 Léoville recently and it was actually open, soft and ready to go. This 1982 is still a little stubborn on first opening, but gets better and better in the glass, with sweet brambly ripe fruits, and rippling tannins that are almost honeyed at this stage. Classic, dense, mineral minty touches on the finish, great persistency and a way still ahead of it. Michel Delon, father of today’s owner, was in charge at this point (and until 2000) and the cellar master Bruno Rolland remembers that they were working in shorts at night in the vat house because even after harvest the temperature was not dropping below 20 degrees at night. They were the first estate in St Julien to start harvesting in 1982 by the way, on September 13. Petit Verdot 5% finishes the blend. Drinking Window 2018 - 2045.Decanter | 97 DECA racy, classy, silky wine. Inky-ruby color. Black cherry, mineral and wet earth aromas. Medium-bodied, with very silky tannins and a long, superfine finish. Has always been excellent.--1982 Bordeaux horizontal. Best after 2000.Wine Spectator | 95 WS(Château Leoville Las Cases) The 1982 Leoville Las Cases is a very nice and youthful wine, but I have always been under the impression that this wine was made in the cellar, rather than the vineyard, and will never really attain the level of greatness that is attributed to it elsewhere. The wine is certainly deep and concentrated in personality, offering up a still quite primary bouquet of cassis, black cherries, cigar ash, a touch of mint and plenty of toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, quite extracted in profile and still fairly tannic, with a good core, fine focus and grip and very good, but not great length on the youthful finish. Maybe this will eventually become the complex wine of its considerable reputation, but I am skeptical, and rather expect the ’82 Las Cases to always trade on its power, but never develop the complexity of the truly great wines of this vintage. Call it good, not great. (Drink between 2023-2075).John Gilman | 93 JGSadly, it is not a great night for Bordeaux. The 1982 Léoville Las Cases is powerful but also incredibly compact, with little appeal or mid-palate depth. This is a very stubborn wine, even within the context of Las Cases.Antonio Galloni | 92 AG