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Château Léoville-Las-Cases 1994

I just checked, and it seems we are already more than half way through January. The tinsel, roast goose and figgy pudding (whatever that is) are now long distant memories. So too the Hogmanay celebrations. Thankfully here in Scotland we still have Burns Night to look forward too, a beacon of epicurean light in the dark winter months.

Provided you like haggis, that is.

Meanwhile, I am aware of the need to just get on with 2025, so I thought I should return to my haphazard pulling of older bottles of Bordeaux from the cellar, which I started many moons ago – by which I mean last July – with the 1989 Chasse-Spleen. At the time I kicked off by revisiting some older vintages which had already appeared on Winedoctor as Weekend Wines, a chance to reassess some wines ten or fifteen years after my previous taste. In contrast, this weekend’s wine is one that has not appeared in this Monday slot before. Not in this vintage and, curiously, given my admiration for the property and its wines, not in any other vintage either.

Time to put that right, I guess.

The history of Léoville-Las-Cases is well documented in my profile, which was published on this site back in 2007 and regularly updated since then. Being brief (because you can find all the detail you need, and more, in my profile), the property emerged from the great Léoville estate which was, at the time of the French Revolution, in the hands of Pierre-Jean de Las Cases (1750 – 1815).

Pierre-Jean was a nobleman, holding the title Marquis de Las-Cases-Beauvoir, undeniably a figure of the Ancien Régime, and thus at this time a marked man. With a sensible head on his shoulders – and he presumably wished it to remain attached there – he fled France during the Terreur. In his absence the process of breaking up and selling off his estate began, giving rise to the vineyards of Léoville-Barton and Léoville-Poyferré. The part which remained, about three-fifths of the original, with some of the most prestigious vineyards in a clos adjacent to the vines of Latour and very close to the Gironde, was the nidus for the modern-day Léoville-Las-Cases. It was reclaimed by Pierre-Jean when he later returned to France.

Château Léoville-Las-Cases 1994

The property was then handed down through several generations of the Las Cases family, but ultimately control of the estate came to the régisseur Théophile Skawinski, who in a business-minded fashion had set about acquiring shares in it. Before long he owned the majority, and the property was his. It then came to his son-in-law André Delon (1872 – 1951), after which it passed through the hands of several generations of the Delon family, and it was – coincidentally enough, given the vintage at hand – in 1994 that André’s great grandson Jean-Hubert Delon returned home to work on the property, having first carved out a career in law. He took over in 2000, and continues to run the estate today.

Among all the proprietors of St Julien I think it is Jean-Hubert Delon I know least well. Indeed, I had been visiting Bordeaux for many years before we even met, by which time I was on first-name terms with many other proprietors. I don’t think I would dare refer to Monsieur Delon by his first name though; he has a passing resemblance to a maths teacher who taught me during my first three years in high school. The teacher in question had a penchant for throwing the wooden chalk duster at the head of any boy who was misbehaving, and I don’t want to find out if Monsieur Delon would do the same.

Thinking back to more aged vintages, like this 1994 most older bottles of Léoville-Las-Cases I have encountered have come from my own cellar, or those of friends and acquaintances, rather than more formal tastings. A recent encounter was the 1964, only last year, which showed well in a line-up of seven wines all aged sixty years and proved the value of the Las-Cases terroir in a vintage which really favoured the right bank (you can read more about this one in my Bordeaux Fours report, featuring vintages from 2004 back to 1914). I also thought the 1961 showed well when tasted at a horizontal tasting, still with hidden potential, but that was a very long time ago now. So too the 1981, 1983 and 1985 vintages, all good wines, but all encountered many years ago. I recall a 1975 which was a little foursquare, but that is the 1975 vintage for you, and on the whole this is a property which turns out rich, high-quality, structured and ageworthy wines.

I don’t think I need to say too much about the 1994 vintage; I wrote a few words on it in the aforementioned Bordeaux Fours: 1914 – 2004 report, and there are other 1994 Bordeaux reports on the site. Suffice to say it has given us a slew of modest and overtly structured wines which do not excite in the same manner as, for example, 1996 or 2005, but which have nevertheless aged well (so you can expect a few more 1994s on this site in coming months).

The 1994 Château Léoville-Las-Cases has been in my cellar for close to two decades; I know nothing of its provenance prior to that, but all previous bottles (this is not my first!) have been tip-top, with no cause for concern. The cork came out easily, with a standard corkscrew, and was in fine condition. The wine shows a great colour in the glass, a dark black tulip hue, with a matt, dusty, cherry red tinge around the rim, with an opaque character even at this age. There follows a classic maturing nose, savoury and dark, with layers of dried black olive and juniper berries, with tobacco leaf, liquorice, mint, rose petals and black pepper. It has a precise and finely formed palate, a rather modest texture through the midpalate which reflects the more restrained nature of the 1994 vintage, savoury and riven with dark and dried black fruits. A loosely composed finish also speaks of the vintage, but it remains savoury, dry and deft, with a cool core of crushed minerals and a lightly filled-out finish. All in all an intriguing wine which sometimes emits expressive floral nuances, but sometimes feels rather more mute; catch it in the former mood and it is a delight. With a little wrapping of powdery tannin, this is drinking well now, but there is no rush – it will be a slow fade over the next couple of decades, I think. The alcohol on the label is 12.5%. 94/100 (20/1/25)

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