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Deep garnet colored, the 2010 L’Eglise Clinet begins unassumingly with gentle notions of fragrant dried flowers and wild sage leading to savory nut and meat characters over an expanding core of preserved plums, blueberry compote and black cherry coulis plus a waft of menthol. Full-bodied, concentrated and wonderfully decadent, the palate is absolutely packed with rich, ripe black fruit preserves and loads of spicy sparks, framed by super ripe, super plush tannins, finishing very long and decadent. I love the interplay of subtly and power here - this is truly a WOW wine!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPSo much elegance and complexity to this young wine with plenty of flowers and dark fruit notes. Full and super refined, with amazing complexity and firmness. It is very tight and silky. Long and intense. This is a super 2001 or a 1961.James Suckling | 97-98 JSRich but delightfully pure, with a stunningly gorgeous, pure beam of unadulterated raspberry preserves driving through the middle, showing hints of plum, anise and blueberry hanging in the background. The long finish drips with fruit, but maintains the racy acidity needed for balance and elegance, while a fine minerality slides in underneath. Drink now through 2030. 1,333 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSThe 2010 L’Eglise-Clinet comes across a little introverted and sullen on the nose compared to its peers in this very strong flight. It is attractive in its own way with pretty red berry fruit, briary and rose petals, but declines to reveal its complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, slightly lactic in style, modern in the context of this Pomerol cru, but well balanced on the finish. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal.Vinous Media | 94+ VM

This is crazy. The nose is so unique with the iodine, stones and currant aromas with wet earth and mushroom. Aromas like this don’t usually come out until 10 years or so in the bottle. Classic nose for this estate. Full-bodied, with an amazing palate of firm yet polished tannins and a solid palate. So dense and gorgeous. It is really stunning. Try in 2020.James Suckling | 100 JSDeep garnet colored, the 2010 La Mission Haut-Brion has a commanding, profound nose of baked blackberries, boysenberries and warm cassis plus suggestions of candied violets, red roses, chocolate box, cedar chest and smoked meats with a waft of iron ore. Full-bodied, powerful and hedonic, the palate bursts with expressive black fruits and floral sparks, framed by exquisitely ripe, grainy tannins and beautiful freshness, finishing with epic length. A real head-turner, this beauty is already very impressive, but for that full WOW experience I would give it another 3-5 years in bottle to blossom.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPMore subdued on the nose but with striking cinnamon and black pepper notes alongside the blackberry and spiced dark chocolate, this is concentrated and velvety and extremely high quality. Again it is the texture, the construction, that grabs you. There is a similar feel to Haut-Brion, in its weight and power, just a little less elongated stretching out of the tannins through the final furlong. But believe me, you’ll enjoy this too. Drinking Window 2025 - 2050Decanter | 98 DECThe 2010 La Mission Haut-Brion has a very flattering bouquet with detailed red and black fruit laced with chestnut, cedar and sous-bois. This is supremely well focused. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain tannins. There is immense depth here, more savoury than expected with chestnut once again, white pepper and a tinge of dried blood towards the finish. Outstanding. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the BI Wines & Spirits 10-Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 98 VMThis rich, open wine has both acidity and impressively ripe white and yellow-fruit flavors. The creaminess creates a sense of richness underlined by the wood aging. This is a balanced wine, already well integrated and likely to age well. Drink from 2024.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEIntense and engaging. Despite showing lots of heft and tarry grip, the singed apple wood and alder notes are well-defined in this red, accentuating a core of roasted fig, blackberry coulis and macerated red and black currant fruit. The long, bramble-edged finish sports showy ganache and Lapsang souchong tea notes, while the structure refuses to yield until everything has finally played out. Muscular and vivacious. Best from 2019 through 2040. 5,100 cases made.Wine Spectator | 97 WS(Château La Mission Haut-Brion) The 2010 La Mission Haut-Brion is the most mammoth of all the wines in the Dillon stable in 2010, as it tips the scales at an unprecedented 15.1 percent in alcohol. The nose is very, very deep, very ripe and amazingly, also quite compelling, as it offers up scents of black cherries, sweet cassis, bitter chocolate, soil tones, cigar smoke, gravel and a very well-integrated and generous base of new oak. I much prefer the wood integration on the 2010 La Mission to the 2009 at the same stage a year ago. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, powerful and sharply acidic, with a rock solid core of pure fruit, very hard tannins, excellent focus and great length and grip on the tensile finish. The acids today are quite coarse and one hopes that they will eventually be tamed. They tend to really sharpen the expression of the fruit, but they are not currently integrated into the body of the wine and cause a fair bit of discordance on the finish at the present time. The 2010 La Mission, despite its higher alcohol content than the 2010 Haut-Brion, shows less signs of overripeness on the backend than its First Growth stable-mate. It too is a very forcefully-styled and bruising young wine at the present time, and I have a hard time imagining its ultimate shape. Perhaps it will turn out as well as the 1975 La Mission, but it may also always be a wine that never fully pulls its currently disparate elements into a cohesive and compelling whole. There is a lot of sound in the fury currently in the glass, but not much enlightenment. (Drink between 2025-2075)John Gilman | 83-92+ JG

This is considered to be among the greatest vintages ever made in Montrose, right up with the 1929, 1945, 1947, 1959, 1961, 1989, 1990 and 2009. Harvest was October 15 to 17. The wine has really come on since I last tasted it, and it needs at least another 10 years of cellaring. The blend was 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. The wine is opaque black/blue, with an incredible nose of blueberry and blackberry liqueur, with hints of incense, licorice, and acacia flowers. Tannins are incredibly sweet and very present. The wine is full-bodied, even massive, with great purity, depth and a finish that goes on close to a minute. This is a 50- to 75-year-old wine that will repay handsomely those with good aging genes. (Note: The Chateau Montrose website gives an aging potential of 2020-2100.Robert Parker | 100 RPThe 2010 Montrose is insanely beautiful. A vivid, eternal wine, the 2010 dazzles right out of the gate with its explosive energy. Soaring floral and mineral notes are immediately captivating on the bouquet. All that carries through to the palate, where the wine is dense and expansive. Readers lucky enough to own it should be thrilled. This really benefits from aeration. What a wine! Vinous Media | 100 VMFabulous inky rich depths to the colour here, and right off the nose you feel it enticing you in. Spice is evident, as are the ripples of muscles and walls. This is in the Lynch Bages school of not being ready yet, the tannins are still fully standing to attention. Fruit is dark, tight, hiding its fleshier side for now, and it is extremely clear that this is a vintage with ambition and no intention of going anywhere for many decades. A great wine, needs to be opened for five to six hours if drinking soon, but my suggestion would be to put it away for another three or four years at least. Drinking Window 2022 - 2050Decanter | 98 DECRock solid, displaying a dense core of plum, steeped currant and braised fig fruit, with racy charcoal and ganache notes. Intensely chalky, offering flesh and refinement to match the bracing minerality, this shows hints of grilled savory, iron, warm paving stone and bitter orange on the riveting finish. Should age very slowly. Best from 2019 through 2038.Wine Spectator | 97 WSA perfumed and pure Montrose, with lots of currants, berries and spices that evolve to chocolate and light coffee. Full body, with super racy tannins and bright and clean finish. Very fine and structured. A balance and freshness to it all as well as beautiful form and tension. Try in 2018.James Suckling | 97 JSThis is such an elegant wine that has all the structure of the vintage. Surrounding the tannins, the wine is sweet and ripe, with smokiness from the wood. It’s powerful, elegant and sophisticated with a strong sense of poise. The tannins promise long-term aging.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WE(Château Montrose) The 2010 Montrose is another very, very good example of the vintage, but I suspect it will always have to live in the long shadow of the 2008 and 2009 wines from this estate. The wine is probably a tad riper than the 2009, as it weighs in at 13.6 percent, and at this very early date, it seems to have lost just a touch of focus and delineation at this slightly higher octane level. The bouquet is certainly deep and impressively complex out of the blocks, as it offers up scents of sweet cassis, dark berries, Cuban cigar ash, espresso, gravel, lead pencil and a bit of singed earth. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and truly massive in shape, with impeccable balance, a superb core, very substantial, but well-integrated tannins, tangy acids and outstanding length and grip on the powerful finish. There is a fine spine of minerality in the 2010 Montrose that promises very fine evolution on into the future, but the ripeness here seems to have taken just a touch of backend lift away from the wine in this vintage. It is a very good wine, and it may prove that after it has fifteen or twenty years of bottle age on it, I will have underrated it a bit. But at this stage, as good as the 2010 Montrose is, I would rather own the superb 2008 or 2009 vintages from this great estate. (Drink between 2027-2100)John Gilman | 93+ JG

Layered, textured, deep, cigar box, cassis and earth, managing to simultaneously stretch out, and burrow down. The edges open slowly but surely and seductively. Still inky in colour, this has all the powerful texture and tannic architecture that you expect from Leoville, and unlike the 2009 at its ten year point it is still keeping plenty of secrets close to its chest. But you are going to want to be around when it fully opens. Drinking Window 2022 - 2050.Decanter | 100 DECA hugely powerful wine, full of dark, brooding tannins. It’s a wine for seriously long-term aging, a sculptural vision of classic Bordeaux structure with with classy, ripe blackberry fruits. It has fresh acidity and an immense full-bodied character, cut through with mineral acidity. A great wine, with great potential.Wine Enthusiast | 100 WEThe aromas to this wine have a beautiful purity of raspberries, blueberries, currants, and flowers that follow to a a full body, with super integrated tannins that are like the finest silk in texture. It shows elegant and pretty fruit character and a reserve and finesse of such great years as 1989 and 1995. The bright strong acidity gives a crunchy and creamy texture. This has a tiny bit more Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend than 2009. Give it at least six to eight years of bottle age.James Suckling | 99 JSStunning and pure from the get-go, with intense cassis and blackberry fruit. Ultimately takes a slightly austere approach, with a wrought-iron structure driving along while pastis, black tea, licorice snap and asphalt notes course underneath. Long and loaded with grip, this remains remarkably fine-grained. A very chiseled Cabernet that is wonderfully precise and incredibly long. Best from 2020 through 2040. 12,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 99 WSBlended of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc, the deep garnet colored 2010 Léoville Las Cases delivers tons of evolving black fruits on the nose with notes of crème de cassis, prunes and incense plus wafts of cloves, cedar, cigar box and powdered cinnamon. Full-bodied, rich, bold and decadently fruited, it has a solid frame of grainy tannins, and the oak is faintly notable on the palate. It finishes impressively with long-lingering mineral notes. This one probably needs 3-5 more years to really hit its stride!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97+ RPThe 2010 Léoville Las Cases has a clean and precise bouquet, beautifully focused with blackberry, melted tar, cigar humidor and crushed stone aromas. It gains intensity with aeration without ever losing its precision. The palate is medium-bodied with lithe tannins, a fine bead of acidity, a sense of abiding symmetry and detail as it fans out on the mineral-driven finish. This is an absolutely awesome Saint-Julien with a long life ahead. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the BI Wines & Spirits 10-Year On tasting.Vinous Media | 96 VM(Château Leoville Las Cases) The grand vin in 2010 at Leoville Las Cases is outstanding and one of the top wines on the Left Bank this year, but it is a wine of immense power and concentration and will need a long time in the cellar to fully unfold. At 13.7 percent alcohol, the wine is ripe, but certainly not overripe and most impressive in its purity and focus, as it offers up a very, very deep nose of sappy black cherries, dark chocolate, tobacco leaf, espresso, a great base of soil (particularly for this vintage), smoke and plenty of spicy new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very powerful, with rippling muscles, ripe, well-integrated tannins, great depth at the core and a very, very long, focused and slightly heady finish. This is a big-boned and very ripe Las Cases that should last at least seventy-five years, and I like it better than the also very powerful 2009, as the 2010 seems to have harnessed its power much better and integrated it into a more seamless whole. The 2010 is a beautifully made wine, but of the last three vintages at this estate, there is little doubt in my mind that the utterly profound 2008 Leoville Las Cases is the greatest wine of the trio, and perhaps the best wine made at this fine estate in a generation! (Drink between 2025-2100).John Gilman | 94+ JG

Pure gold, the 2010 Château Léoville Poyferré, which was drunk beside a perfect 2009 Latour, offers everything you could want from wine. Sporting a deep purple hue as well as an incredible array of crème de cassis, graphite, damp earth, leafy tobacco, and beautifully integrated oak, it hits the palate with an incredible amount of fruit and opulence while always staying pure, precise, and as seamless as they come. It shows the density and power of the 2010 vintage, but it’s remarkable in its balance, purity, and length. As with most 2010s today, it’s still youthful and certainly in its early drinking plateau and has another 40-50 years of prime drinking.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDThe wine out distances both Leoville Las Cases and Leoville Barton, but all three of them are compelling efforts. Full-bodied, dense purple in color, with floral notes intermixed with blackberries, cassis, graphite and spring flowers, this full-bodied, legendary effort is long and opulent, with wonderfully abundant yet sweet tannin, a skyscraper-like mid-palate and a thrilling, nearly one-minute finish. This spectacular effort from Poyferre that should drink well for 30+ years.Another spectacular wine from the Cuvelier family, Leoville Poyferre (along with Ducru Beaucaillou) may be one of the two best wines of St.-Julien year after year these days. This is a large estate, covering nearly 200 acres, and the final blend of the 2010 Leoville Poyferre is 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, a whopping 34% Merlot and the rest 7% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.Robert Parker | 98+ RPA wine of architectural strength and classical proportions, this has straight lines that mark the packed, concentrated fruits, which are sustained by its tannins. This is certainly the best wine that Léoville-Poyferré has produced, sumptuous while so finely structured.Wine Enthusiast | 98 WERich and round with cinnamon, anis and black pepper. This has a luxuriously silky texture; very much signature of the property sitting perfectly against the fresh push and kick of the vintage. One of the few that has maintained its violet edging around the rim of the glass, giving great expectations that it has decades ahead of it while maintaining this level. Drinking Window 2020 - 2042Decanter | 97 DECOpulent aromas of blackberry, black cherry and orange peel follow through to a full body with round, creamy tannins and a flavorful finish. A big, significant wine that is starting to open and come around. A long life ahead of it. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 97 JSThe 2010 Léoville-Poyferré takes the 2009 and ups the ante with brilliantly defined, intense black fruit. Perhaps it is just a little more "serious" compared to the previous vintage, but is finely chiseled and displaying more mineralité. The palate has mellowed since I last tasted it, developing more rondeur and a more caressing texture. Extremely pure in style, this fans out wonderful, fills the mouth and lingers for a minute. One of the highlights of Didier Cuvelier’s career, this has a long future ahead. "LP" just does not get better than this. Tasted at the Léoville-Poyferré vertical at the château with Sara Lecompte Cuvelier.Vinous Media | 97 VMFeatures a coating of warm cocoa, with notes of solid currant paste, steeped fig and blackberry fruit. The pastis- and graphite-filled finish pumps along, revealing a well-embedded structure that should soften in the cellar. Best from 2015 through 2030. 17,833 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WS