Chateau Leoville Las Cases 2eme Cru Classe, Saint-Julien 2014

Blueberries, green peppercorns, tobacco, liquorice and purple flowers – a lovely nose. Grippy, tense, tangy and precise, you can feel the St-Julien terroir and the Las Cases touch. It's not necessarily up for easy enjoyment now but there's a lovely sense of class about this. Precise and finessed, balanced acidity, a really stony undercurrent and wet stone grip on the finish. Feels young still, like it hasn't quite relaxed, still compact, but so refined! I love the style, one to wait for. Has cool minty freshness too on the finish which gives a nice lift and makes you want to go back for another sip.

Drink 2024 - 2046

The 2014 Leoville-Las Cases is a blend of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, with Cabernet Franc and Merlot, cropped at 33 hectoliters per hectare and matured in 85% new oak. There is 6.8% vin de presse this year. Picked between 30 September and 13 October over 12 days. It has a delectable bouquet with very precise, mineral-rich black fruit infused with oyster shell, which appears to be a leitmotif of Jean-Huber Delon's 2014s!

The palate is medium-bodied with wondrous purity and tension, the acidity beautifully poised and imparting the palpable sense of energy from start to finish. Where it really excels is on the finish: exquisite structure, very complex with enormous persistence that lingers for more than a minute. Surely the wine of the appellation, ditto one of the best Left Bank 2014s.

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