1985 Leoville Barton
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Tasting notes
My favorite vintage from this château to drink today is the superb 1985 Léoville Barton, a sumptuous, demonstrative wine that bursts with aromas of cedary currant fruit, plums, loamy soil and cigar wrapper. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and charming, with an enveloping core of fruit, melting tannins, ripe acids and a long, expansive finish, it's at its peak today but in no danger of imminent decline.
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More reviews and scores
Magnum. I think this is a particular favourite of Anthony Barton's as it was the first wine he made without any intervention from Uncle Ronald. It was certainly looking gorgeous. Silky tannins and cedary fruit. Special, mellow and unusually smooth for this wine. Bone-dry finish. A treat to drink Léoville Barton with so much age on it even if the fruit may be slightly fading. (JR)
Anthony Barton's first vintage in solo charge very kindly served by him at a lunch at Langoa. This has always been a lovely wine. Still dark crimson with a ruby rim. Quite marked acidity and freshness at first but it took on weight and flesh in the glass. (JR)
Very, very full and rich and round. Anthony Barton loves it – the first wine he made in the post-Uncle Ronald era. Lovely now. (JR)
About the producer
Ch. Léoville Barton is a Second Growth Saint-Julien estate, one of the three famous Léoville estates (along with Léoville Poyferré and Léoville Las Cases). Owned by the Barton family (along with Ch. Langoa Barton), it produces classically structured Claret that ages beautifully.