Chateau Leoville Poyferre 2eme Cru Classe, Saint-Julien 2010

I continue to absolutely love the 2010 Château Léoville Poyferré, and it certainly ticks all my boxes. This deep purple-hued beauty boasts phenomenal notes of crème de cassis, smoky tobacco, graphite, and leather. With full-bodied richness, a deep, layered mouthfeel, and ripe, polished tannins, it brings that rare mix of opulence and elegance and is an utter joy to drink. It needs a healthy decant if drinking any time soon and has another 3-4 decades of overall longevity. Drink 2025-2065.

Deep colour, luscious and powerful, has the push and pull of a truly great wine, where you are not exactly sure where you will land but you are fully along for the ride. Brilliant quality, precision, smoke, liquorice, cigar box, cassis, mint leaf etching, rippled with muscle, more Pauillac than St Julien in the 2010 vintage, with decades ahead of it. Great stuff, easily one of the wines of the tasting. 80% new oak. Harvest October 1 to 18.

The wine out distances both Leoville Las Cases and Leoville Barton, but all three of them are compelling efforts. Full-bodied, dense purple in color, with floral notes intermixed with blackberries, cassis, graphite and spring flowers, this full-bodied, legendary effort is long and opulent, with wonderfully abundant yet sweet tannin, a skyscraper-like mid-palate and a thrilling, nearly one-minute finish. This spectacular effort from Poyferre that should drink well for 30+ years.

Another spectacular wine from the Cuvelier family, Leoville Poyferre along with Ducru Beaucaillou) may be one of the two best wines of St.-Julien year after year these days. This is a large estate, covering nearly 200 acres, and the final blend of the 2010 Leoville Poyferre is 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, a whopping 34% Merlot and the rest 7% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.

One of the prodigious wines of the vintage, the Cuvelier family has produced an outstanding 2010 that must tip the scales at 14.5+% alcohol. It boasts an opaque purple color in addition to a sweet perfume of spring flowers, black raspberries, creme de cassis and a hint of spicy oak. This seamlessly constructed St.-Julien possesses massive concentration, moderately high tannins, abundant glycerin, an unctuous texture, remarkably fresh acids and wonderful precision. It will benefit from 5-6 years of cellaring and last 30-35 years.

Opulent aromas of blackberry, black cherry and orange peel follow through to a full body with round, creamy tannins and a flavorful finish. A big, significant wine that is starting to open and come around. A long life ahead of it. Drink or hold.

Intense fruit, perfumed elements with strong wood notes. It's confident and a bit of a show-off, but the fruit and plush tannic chewiness are at the fore, so it avoids overt minerality or leanness, unlike many in the tasting. Has weight and vigour but with freshness and mass appeal. Not so refined, but not harsh either. Cool blueberries and graphite, liquorice elements. Different style to many.

The 2010 Léoville-Poyferré takes the 2009 and ups the ante with brilliantly defined, intense black fruit. Perhaps it is just a little more "serious" compared to the previous vintage, but is finely chiseled and displaying more mineralité. The palate has mellowed since I last tasted it, developing more rondeur and a more caressing texture. Extremely pure in style, this fans out wonderful, fills the mouth and lingers for a minute. One of the highlights of Didier Cuvelier’s career, this has a long future ahead. "LP" just does not get better than this. Tasted at the Léoville-Poyferré vertical at the château with Sara Lecompte Cuvelier.

Medium to deep garnet-brick in color, the 2010 Leoville Poyferre is a little closed and broody to start, soon unfurling to offer glimpses at blackcurrant preserves, chocolate-covered cherries, and dried mulberries, plus wafts of tobacco, pencil lead, and smoked meats. Medium-bodied, the palate has a rock-solid frame of chewy tannins and oodles of freshness supporting the muscular fruit, finishing long and earthy.