Bordeaux 2014 Primeurs: Château Léoville-Las-Cases
There was a time, more than a couple of decades ago as I was just discovering wine, when it seemed to me that there was an accepted hierarchy among the three Léoville estates. The wines of Château Léoville-Las-Cases were always the grandest, the most reliable, and the most coveted. The phrase super-second is bandied about too easily, but if there is one estate that may truly lay a claim to this title it is this one. Then there was Château Léoville-Barton, a perennial favourite, giving us high quality but also a very favourable price, Anthony Barton regularly choosing to price his product as a wine for drinking, not as a luxury plaything, although this did unfortunately provide a huge margin for profiteers who probably made more money in trading the wine than Anthony ever did in making it. And then, trailing behind in third place, there was Château Léoville-Poyferré, an under-performing château which was easy to pass over in favour of others in the same commune. Now, though, those times have gone. All three of these estates turn out top-class wine with regularity, and there is no guarantee in any one vintage which will perform the best.
Having said that, my preferences this year feel very familiar, the hierarchy broadly maintained. All three are good wines, but my preference is for that from the true heart of the original Léoville estate, Château Léoville-Las-Cases, while I find Château Léoville-Barton coming in a notch behind, with Château Léoville-Poyferré snapping at its heels in third place. It seems to be a vintage in which in many cases (but not all), to paraphrase the words of Vincent Millet at Château Calon-Ségur in my 2014 St Estèphe report, the best terroirs on the left bank have won out. This certainly feels true within the appellation of St Julien, although as already stated on the previous I do feel, probably as a result of that somewhat wetter spring and summer weather, that the commune as a whole lags slightly behind Pauillac and St Estèphe.
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