Chateau Leoville Las Cases 2eme Cru Classe, Saint-Julien 2010

Layered, textured, deep, cigar box, cassis and earth, managing to simultaneously stretch out, and burrow down. The edges open slowly but surely and seductively. Still inky in colour, this has all the powerful texture and tannic architecture that you expect from Leoville, and unlike the 2009 at its ten year point it is still keeping plenty of secrets close to its chest. But you are going to want to be around when it fully opens.

Drink 2022 - 2050

The aromas to this wine have a beautiful purity of raspberries, blueberries, currants, and flowers that follow to a full body, with super integrated tannins that are like the finest silk in texture. It shows elegant and pretty fruit character and a reserve and finesse of such great years as 1989 and 1995. The bright strong acidity gives a crunchy and creamy texture. This has a tiny bit more Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend than 2009. Give it at least six to eight years of bottle age.

The most powerful wine in this vertical is the 2010 Léoville Las Cases, a full-bodied, deep and multidimensional behemoth redolent of rich berries, cassis, burning embers, pencil shavings and loamy soil. Broad-shouldered, layered and muscular, with huge reserves of concentration and sweet, powdery tannin, it concludes with a broad, resonant finish. This is a prodigious, somewhat imposing Las Cases that is still an infant a decade after bottling.

Drink 2025 - 2065

The 2010 Léoville Las Cases has a clean and precise bouquet, beautifully focused with blackberry, melted tar, cigar humidor and crushed stone aromas. It gains intensity with aeration without ever losing its precision. The palate is medium-bodied with lithe tannins, a fine bead of acidity, a sense of abiding symmetry and detail as it fans out on the mineral-driven finish. This is an absolutely awesome Saint-Julien with a long life ahead. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the BI Wines & Spirits 10-Year On tasting.

Drink 2026 - 2060