2019 Leoville Las Cases

The 2019 Léoville Las Cases is a brilliant young wine that will delight Bordeaux purists. Unwinding in the glass with scents of cassis, dark berries, cigar wrapper and pencil shavings, it’s full-bodied, layered and tightly wound, with a deep core of fruit, lively acids and an abundance of rich, powdery tannins. Concentrated and serious, much like its immediate neighbor Château Latour, it is likely to emerge as one of the vintage’s longest lived—and greatest—wines. WK

The 2019 Léoville–Las Cases, bottled July 2021, retains the energetic, vivacious bouquet that I noticed last year from the barrel sample, offering intense blackberry, bilberry and still those faint shucked oyster shell scents in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with wonderful detail and precision, a mixture of black and blue fruit and enthralling clarity and length. Perhaps there is a little more creaminess in terms of texture toward the finish, a bit of "baby fat" that will be subsumed with time, so give this 8–10 years in bottle if you want to taste it in full flight. [Returning after 15 or 20 minutes, I discerned more pepperiness on the finish, and perhaps also less creaminess and more structure.] 14.02% alcohol.

Currants and blackberries with crushed stones, bark and some conifer and pine cone. Perfumed. Discreet. Medium-to full-bodied with an integrated tannin structure that’s full of fine tannins that are weightless and seamless, building on the palate and coming out at the end. Needs five or six years to open. Texture of heavy silk. 79% cabernet sauvignon, 11% merlot and 10% cabernet franc. Try after 2027.

Just as it was from barrel, the 2019 Léoville Las-Cases is a wine of pure and total sophistication. There is not the size of some recent vintages, but instead that heft is replaced by cool refinement. The expression of fruit leans into the redder end of the spectrum as opposed to the typically darker Las-Cases profile. Hints of cedar, tobacco, mint and blood orange linger. I can't wait to see how it ages.

The new version of classic modern is on display here. While the 2019 lacks the power of the 2018, instead you find one of the few great vintages of Leoville Las Cases that you can enjoy relatively early, which is early for LLC. The wine shows good color with a nose of currants, blackberry, spearmint, tobacco leaf, cigar box, flowers, cedar chest, and espresso. Here you find intensity, ripe, regal, creamy tannins, complexity, and refined textures with length and purity. Give this at least 12 years before popping a cork. The wine is a blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2028-2060. Tasted March 2022

More backward, deep, and layered, the Grand Vin 2019 Château Léoville Las Cases is 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc that saw 90% new French oak. Just awesome aromatics of pure crème de cassis, graphite, tobacco leaf, burning embers, and gravelly earth all soar from the glass. This is followed by a quintessential Léoville Las Cases that's medium to full-bodied, pure, concentrated, and regal on the palate, with beautiful tannins. The purity of fruit is spot on, it's flawlessly balanced, and it’s going to age for decades. While it offers pleasure today, I'd wager it will take 10-15 years to hit maturity and will be a 50+ year wine.

Wet stone, smoke and floral aspects to the aromatic profile - seriously inviting. Density and power here, but cooling and all in balance, full of blackcurrant and black cherries with obvious minerality. It gives such plushness in terms of roundness and grip of tannins, but also layers of perfumed fruit, ripe fruit and cooling slate and liquorice elements. A distinguished wine with a seamless tannic structure and excellent length. Lots of life here and also a real, almost sweet acidity that gives life and lift. Lots going on now but designed for long and steady ageing. Drinking Window: 2029 - 2050
Tasted by: Georgina Hindle (at Bordeaux, 05 Jan 2022)
Part of Bordeaux 2019 in bottle: overview plus top-scoring wines