Château Léoville Poyferré

Château Léoville Poyferré is the hedonist of the three Léovilles. Where its Barton and Las Cases siblings prize austerity, Poyferré — Cuvelier family property since 1920 — pours St-Julien into a plusher mold: deep, velvety Cabernet fruit, lavish but never sloppy, a style Didier Cuvelier honed over four decades of replanting and cellar investment before handing the reins to Sara Lecompte Cuvelier. The estate's 1929 remains one of the fabled bottles of the last century, and the 2009 brought it a modern perfect score. It is the Léoville to drink while the other two make you wait.