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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

A spectacular Latour, the 1996 may be the modern day clone of the 1966, only riper. This vintage, which is so variable in Pomerol, St.-Emilion, and Graves, was fabulous for the late-harvested Cabernet Sauvignon of the northern Medoc because of splendid weather in late September and early October. An opaque purple color is followed by phenomenally sweet, pure aromas of cassis infused with subtle minerals. This massive offering possesses unreal levels of extract, full body, intensely ripe, but abundant tannin, and a finish that lasts for nearly a minute. Classic and dense, it displays the potential for 50-75 years of longevity. Although still an infant, it would be educational to taste a bottle. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2050.Robert Parker | 99 RPFabulous aromas of crushed raspberries, plums and blackberries. Mind-blowing nose. Full-bodied, with soft and silky tannins and a long caressing finish. Hard not to drink now, but leave it alone.--’95/’96 Bordeaux retrospective. Best after 2010. 17,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSThe 1996 Latour is a wine that I often find overrated and did not achieve everything that might have been possible in this favourable growing season. That said, this might well be the best of around two dozen bottles I have encountered over the years. As usual, the 1996 is decidedly austere at first, standoffish, looks down its nose at you. Yet it coalesces with time and develops engaging cedar-scented black fruit tinged with pencil box and a touch of iris with time. The palate (again) is a little muted at first but it soon found its voice and evolved very fine tannin allied with a crisp line of acidity. It is not quite as demonstrative as it was even just a couple of years ago, gained some detail and perhaps it will continue to meliorate. Very fine, very fine indeed - but not a patch of say, the Château Margaux or perhaps even Léoville Las Cases. Tasted at the International Business & Wine Latour dinner at Ten Trinity.Vinous Media | 94 VM(Château Latour) The last bottle of the 1996 Latour that I tasted was part of a mini-vertical that was one of the most ingenuous and generous flights of wine I have tasted in a long time, as my friend paired the 1996 Latour up with the 1896 Latour at a double blind tasting in February of this year! Needless to say, the one hundred years’ worth of bottle age between the two vintages was sufficient to convince none of us that it was the same property, but both wines acquitted themselves beautifully. I was surprised at how well the 1996 Latour was starting to show, given that it is a classically-styled Latour from a very tannic and powerful vintage in the Medoc, but the wine is already starting to drink with some generosity. The bouquet is superb, offering up scents of black cherries, cassis, cigar ash a touch of tariness, gravelly soil tones, smoke and a whisper of balsam bough in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with firm, still plenty chewy tannins, fine focus and balance and a very long, nascently complex and quite promising finish. This is nowhere near as unapproachable as I would have supposed the combination of Latour and 1996 would be, but I would be inclined to give it another decade in the cellar and really let the fireworks get rolling properly. (Drink between 2027-2085)John Gilman | 94+ JG(Château Latour, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France, Red) This highly anticipated bottle was a bit of a disappointment. One of the two bottles was oxidised, and the other seemed a bit more mature than I would have hoped, with a meaty, savoury note to the black fruit, accented with leather and smoke. The grapes were picked from 17th September to 2nd October, and slightly more than 50% of the fruit was used in the grand vin. A blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. (Drink between 2022-2042)Decanter | 92 DEC

Saturated ruby-red. Pure, highly perfumed aromas of black cherry, currant, plum, minerals, tobacco, leather and fresh herbs. Very ripe, suave and spicy; at once subtle and gripping. Lovely cabernet character dominating today. Very firm, long finish is youthful but not hard-edged. Showing extremely well.Vinous Media | 93+ VMThe 1996 may not be as profound as I had predicted from cask, but it is an exceptional wine. Dark ruby-colored, with a complex nose of dried herbs, Asian spices, and black cherry jam intermixed with cassis, it possesses outstanding purity, and considerable tannin in the finish. This classic, medium to full-bodied, traditionally made wine improves dramatically with airing, suggesting it will have a very long life. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2028.Robert Parker | 92 RPFully mature and drinking wonderfully well, the 1996 Château Calon Ségur has a classic nose of green tobacco, cedarwood, currants, and sous bois. Playing in the medium-bodied end of the spectrum, it has a wonderful sense of purity, polished tannins, solid mid-palate depth, and outstanding length. This is classic, focused, old school yet pure, balanced Bordeaux goodness. It has another two decades of prime drinking ahead of it. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, brought up in 50% new French oak.Jeb Dunnuck | 92 JD(Château Calon-Ségur) Along with the 2001, the 1996 vintage at Calon-Ségur is one of my favorite from the merlot-centric era at the estate, probably because the vintage favored cabernet sauvignon so clearly in the Médoc and a bit more of this grape was included in the blend at Calon in this vintage. The bouquet is deep, vibrant and youthfully precise, wafting from the glass in a mix of cassis, dark berries, cigar ash, dark soil tones, a touch of curry and a gentle framing of cedary wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and impressively tangy, with a fine core of fruit, currently a quite tightly-knit personality, well-integrated tannins and very, very good length and grip on the focused and still quite youthful finish. This is going to be a lovely wine in another eight to ten years’ time and should prove to be quite long-lived. I love to imagine what the current team at Calon would have done with a vintage such as 1996 today! (Drink between 2020-2050)John Gilman | 92 JGCurrant and fresh herbs. Full- to medium-bodied, with plum flavors and a medium finish.--’95/’96 Bordeaux retrospective. Drink now.Wine Spectator | 90 WS

The 2005 La Mission Haut-Brion is pure perfection. It has an absolutely extraordinary nose of sweet blackberries, cassis and spring flowers with some underlying minerality, a full-bodied mouthfeel, gorgeously velvety tannins (which is unusual in this vintage) and a long, textured, multi-layered finish that must last 50+ seconds. This is a fabulous wine and a great effort from this hallowed terroir. Drink this modern-day legend over the next 30+ years. Only 5,500 cases were produced of this blend of 69% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPThis is very rich and layered for La Mission with ultra-polished tannins yet velvety and beautiful in texture. It’s fully-bodied and full of character that shows plums, berries, wet earth and oyster shell flavors that are so unique to reds from this estate. Superb quality. Better to drink this in 2020 but try now to feel the greatness.James Suckling | 99 JSStill inky hued, the blockbuster styled 2005 Château La Mission Haut Brion is based on a blend of 69% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc. A huge monster of a wine that’s still 4-5 years out from its drink window, it gives up massive amounts of ripe, smoky black fruits, truffles, chocolate, graphite, and roasted meats. This carries to a full-bodied Pessac-Léognan offering a dense, concentrated mid-palate, lots of tannins, wonderful purity, and one heck of a magical finish.Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDThe 2005 La Mission Haut-Brion is a wine that I have had the pleasure of tasting on several occasions. The most recent bottle, included in a 2005 horizontal, puts it in a very favorable light even against strong competition. The bouquet bursts from the glass with intense blackberry, cedar and tobacco scents, plus background aromas of fig and damson, as you would expect from a warm summer. The palate is structured, yet the Merlot content (at 69%, the highest in many years) renders this Pessac-Léognan much more pliant than others from this vintage. A mélange of red and black fruits vie for attention, followed by warm gravel and black olives. Quite rich and yet not grippy; with decanting, you could broach this now, though personally I would prefer to leave it for several more years. Outstanding.Vinous Media | 97 VMA glorious vintage of La Mission, this young wine buzzes with energy in the mouth. All of the flavors, whether herbal, earthy or vinous, seem to refer back to the tiny pebbles of this terroir. The texture is silken, the finish exclamatory and grand. It has a racy beauty, the kind of effortless strength Nureyev’s choreography projects in Le Corsaire. One of the wines of the vintage, this has a high proportion of merlot in the blend (69 percent). It’s more accessible than Haut-Brion, but still has the stamina for long-term aging. Diageo Château & Estate Wines, NYWine & Spirits | 97 W&SDark and dense, but with such opulent fruit, this is a year when La Mission shows its softer, richer side by comparison with neighbor Haut-Brion. There is spice and exotic and generous red fruits to give with the concentration. It has great power, but it also has a velvet structure.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEThe Indian spices and blackberry on the nose are so enticing and inspiring, leading to a full-bodied palate, with very polished tannins that caress. Goes on and on as this builds on the palate, with a mineral and berry aftertaste. For long-term aging. Best after 2015. 5,665 cases made.Wine Spectator | 97 WS

The 2009 Les Forts de Latour is engaging and quite complex on the nose with blackberry, bilberry, hints of brine and freshly rolled tobacco, all very well delineated and gaining vigor with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fine but firm tannin that frame layers of black fruit laced with pencil lead and tobacco, very convincing on the finish that has one of the longest lengths of any Pauillac in this flight. Excellent. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.Vinous Media | 96 VMDeep and dark with a ton of smoke and earth, the cassis fruit very much in the background, this is a concentrated and complex wine. Powerful yet racy palate with an elegant mineral finish. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)James Suckling | 96 JSPossibly the best second wine ever made at Latour (and I love how the 1982 is drinking at age 30), the 2009 Les Forts de Latour is composed of two-thirds Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot blended with a tiny dollop of Petit Verdot, and finished at 13.5% alcohol. Juicy notes of creme de cassis, licorice, camphor, smoke and crushed rocks are followed by a rich, unctuously textured, thick, juicy, exceptionally pure, long wine. This beauty will be at its finest in several years and should keep for three decades.Proprietor Francois Pinault and his director, Frederic Engerer, have pulled out all the stops to produce one of the most monumental Latour’s ever made.Robert Parker | 95 RPMint aromas hint at the wood, but more important is the massive Merlot fruit that is an essential element in the blend. The result is a wine that blends richness and power with an initially severe character. Slowly it opens to reveal opulent blackberry jam flavors, immensely ripe.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEMore muscular and closed than the Petit Mouton, here the tannins are beautifully flexed, with real purity of fruit and lovely texture. It’s excellent quality, showing focus and a sense of poise and purpose. A brilliant wine, and one that will age well. These first-growth second wines in 2009 are amazing! Drinking Window 2019 - 2038Decanter | 94 DECThis has purity and precision, with mouthwatering blackberry, black currant and steeped plum fruit racing along, nicely laced with graphite and studded with enticing ganache and iron notes through the finish. Sleek, but the grip is there. Best from 2014 through 2028. 10,830 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WS(Les Forts de Latour (barrel sample)) The 2009 Forts de Latour is the spitting image of the grand vin, as it is deep, pure complex, broad-shouldered and quite structured. The bouquet is a very fine, quite reserved mélange of black cherries, dark berries, tobacco leaf, a great base of complex, gravelly soil tones and cedary wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and tight, with a rock solid core of fruit, plenty of ripe tannins, very good acidity for the vintage and a very long, firm and classy finish. A superb Forts de Latour in the making (Drink between 2022-2050)John Gilman | 90-91+ JG

A very classic wine for patient connoisseurs, Sociando Mallet makes no compromises and continues to produce one of the finest wines among non-classified estates in Haut-Medoc. Dense purple to the rim, the opaque purple-colored 2010 offers up notes of graphite, blueberry and black raspberry fruit, a hint of cassis, some licorice and wet rocks. Deep, full-bodied and almost excruciatingly tannic, this full-throttle, balls-to-the-wall style of wine needs at least 8-10 years of cellaring and should keep for three decades or more.Robert Parker | 91+ RPThe 2010 Sociando Mallet has a well defined, pure bouquet with blackberry, bilberry and light estuarine scents that gently waft from the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, a fine bead of acidity and good weight. It just needs more complexity and terroir expression on the finish. Give this another two or three years. This is one wine where I have encountered better bottles. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal.Vinous Media | 90+ VMLifted aromas of eucalyptus and menthol, with an initial attack of juicy dark fruit - but this drops on the mid-palate, and the tannins still feel a touch drying. Needs more time. Drinking Window 2019 - 2029.Decanter | 90 DEC

The 2010 Palmer is one of the superstars of the vintage, a blend of 54% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot, which is just slightly different than what I indicated two years ago. The alcohol level hit 14.5%, and the wine comes across like a more stacked-and-packed version of their 2000. It is tannic and backward, but has a sensational black/purple color and a gorgeous nose of camphor, barbecue smoke, blackberry and cassis. Full-bodied, with oodles of glycerin but a relatively healthy pH, this wine has a precision and freshness that belie its lofty alcohol and extravagant concentration. This is a sensationally rich, full-throttle Palmer that could well end up being one of the all-time great wines made at this estate. It needs a good 7-10 years of cellaring and should keep for 50 or more years.There’s no question that Thomas Duroux and the staff at Palmer are producing wines of first-growth quality, and have been for nearly a decade.Robert Parker | 98+ RPOne of the great years of Bordeaux now at 10 years old and showing why this is such an unusual vintage in terms of the depth of structure and muscular concentration that was achieved. In fact, I am upping the drinking window from the last time I tasted this, as there is such a pulse of life and grip that shows no signs of going anywhere. The initial layers are starting to be peeled back, but this retains primary black and blue fruits that are still full of flesh alongside baked earth, tons of liquorice and black chocolate with a grippy tannic structure, fresh acidities and a serious attitude. Brilliant stuff, that is clearly going to power on for decades. Harvest September 22 to October 20. Drinking Window 2022 - 2048.Decanter | 98 DECA purity of fruit here with plum and dark chocolate undertones. Spices and treacle tart as well. Full body, with ultra-fine tannins and a long, long finish. Very fine indeed. Fit, fruity and reserved. Superb. Try in 2020.James Suckling | 98 JSWhile outwardly this wine is generous and opulent with great juicy sweetness, the core is structured and powerful. The wine is concentrated and complex, with dark tannins and a brooding, dense texture. This is a wine with a long-lived future.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEThe 2010 Palmer has an outgoing, intense and multifaceted bouquet with black cherries, boysenberry, crushed violets and hints of cassis - your quintessential Margaux turned up to eleven. The palate is medium-bodied with very supple tannins and a fine bead of acidity. Headier than its Margaux peers, it builds in the mouth with a complex, marine-tinged finish with cracked black pepper lingering on the aftertaste. This is an outstanding Palmer but it needs more time in bottle. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the BI Wines & Spirits 10-Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 96 VMThis is riveting, with terrific tarry grip coursing underneath layers of smoldering bay leaf, warm plum confiture, freshly brewed espresso, dark cassis and well-steeped black tea. The charcoal and tobacco backdrop is gorgeous and should move forward through the core of fruit over time. Be patient though, as the structure is ironclad. This will really be electric once mature. Best from 2017 through 2040. 8,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WS(Château Palmer) The 2010 Château Palmer is a quite powerful rendition of this fine estate, but without any signs of the ripeness here obscuring any of the potential purity that makes this great estate so beloved by claret fans the world over. My notes do not include the alcohol level on the grand vin this year (which was also absent from the technical sheet handed out by the estate), but the literature from Palmer this year does observe that “although the alcoholic degree is very high, like in 2009, the acidity and tannic concentration are greater (than 2009), making for wines with an extremely solid foundation.” Given a cépage in 2010 that is comprised of fifty-four percent merlot, forty percent cabernet sauvignon and six percent petit verdot, one has to assume that the alcohol level is in the range of 14.5 percent in this vintage. But the wine shows no ill effects from this level of ripeness, as it offers up a superb nose of black cherries, blackberries, coffee bean, tobacco smoke, gravel and a suave base of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite powerful for Palmer, with a rock solid core of fruit, very good focus and balance, substantial, but well-integrated tannins and excellent length and grip on the tangy finish. Stylistically, this will probably never be my favorite vintage at Palmer, as I tend to prefer this wine when it is at its most elegant, but there is no denying that the 2010 is beautifully-made and does show extraordinary purity and focus for such a broad-shouldered wine. (Drink between 2025-2100)John Gilman | 95 JG

A wine that could easily be mistaken for a First Growth, the 2010 Rauzan-Ségla is an incredibly powerful, full-bodied wine by this estate’s standards, yet it nevertheless holds onto a terrific sense of elegance as well as perfect balance. A huge nose of blackcurrants, smoked earth, tobacco, lead pencil, and spice give way to a concentrated, blockbuster styled Margaux that has thrilling depth of fruit, masses of ripe tannins, and great length and finesse on the finish. This brilliant wine is just now seemingly on the edge of its drink window and offers immense pleasure, yet it has another 30-40 years of life ahead of it. Along with the 2015 and 2016, it’s the greatest wine made at this estate in the past two decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDDeep garnet in color, the 2010 Rauzan-Ségla is youthfully reticent and closed to begin, slowly unfurling to offer notions of underbrush, black truffles, smoked meats and tar over a core of baked black cherries, prunes and crème de cassis plus touches of iron ore and crushed rocks. Full-bodied, concentrated and jam-packed with savory/earthy fruit, it has a rock-solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness, finishing with great length and expression.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 96 RPOne of the top Margaux wines, this is in top form, finely balanced and as elegant as it is powerful. It is darkly structured, dense yet balancing tannins with ripe black plums. It expresses the complexity of the vintage. A wine for serious, long-term aging.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThe 2010 Rauzan-Ségla has a wonderful bouquet, very pure and engaging with wild strawberry, blackberry, rose petals and boysenberry jam. It just feels very focused and beautifully delineated. The palate is medium-bodied with lively red and black fruit laced with cracked black pepper and cedar. It is extremely balanced, almost symmetrical, with a precise and persistent finish. Bon vin. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal.Vinous Media | 95 VMFlashy style of Margaux, with alluring warm cocoa and black tea aromatics followed by cashmere-textured plum sauce, steeped fig and blackberry confiture notes. The well-integrated structure makes this seem almost accessible now, but the ample length and a smoldering tobacco note make a case for cellaring. Best from 2014 through 2030. 9,666 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WSThere’s a wonderful deep and dark fruit to this second wine from Rauzan Segla, with hints of soft tannins. Lovely ripe fruit and a chocolate, light raisin at the end.James Suckling | 90-91 JS(Château Rauzan-Ségla) The 2010 Château Rauzan-Ségla is another fine example of the vintage, but much like the 2010 Château Rauzan-Gassies, a completely traditional approach once again in the cellars here would pay dividends in terms of even more profound expression of terroir. The bouquet on the 2010 is a very classy blend of cassis, dark berries, tobacco, gravelly soil tones, classy new wood and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and sappy at the core, with fine focus and a fair bit of firm, slightly dry-edged tannins on the long and bouncy finish. A touch of the tannins here seem derived already from the new wood, but the overall balance is splendid and this wine should have no difficulty carrying its wood over the long haul. A very successful, ever so slightly “overly-polished” example of the vintage. (Drink between 2020 - 2050)John Gilman | 90+ JG