Le Petit Lion du Marquis de Las Cases, Saint-Julien 2019

This is really beautiful with blackcurrants, spice, black olives and blueberries. Full-bodied with chewy tannins. It’s bright and focused. Excellent second wine from Las Cases. One of the best.

From the first sip Le Petit Lion, we are in the universe of Léoville Las Cases. Dripping with pencil lead and graphite, crushed rocks and restrained elegance, pure and chiselled cassis and bilberry fruits. The personality of this wine is something to behold and enjoy. All grapes come from within the walled L'Enclos that runs alongside the river, on the border of St Julien and Pauillac, and as with the main wine it takes its character from each appellation. 30% new oak. 3.55ph.

The 2019 Le Petit Lion is plush, deep and layered, but in a mid-weight style that will be approachable with minimal cellaring. Élevage has rendered the 2019 quite a bit more accessible than the barrel sample suggested. Bright red-toned fruit, chalk and lifted floral accents all grace this mid-weight second wine from Las-Cases. The 2019 is built on a core of old-vine Merlot and younger vine Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Franc to round things out.

The second wine of Léoville Las Cases, the 2019 Le Petit Lion checks in as 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc that was brought up in 30% new French oak. It has a pure, beautifully balanced, elegant and medium to full-bodied style that carries lots of cassis fruit, notes of violets, tobacco, and sweet earth, terrific overall balance, and a lively, fresh, focused finish. It's another wine from this estate that builds beautifully with time in the glass. This stunning second wine will be long-lived.

The 2019 Le Petit Lion blend this year is 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc and 43% Merlot, harvested from the 20th of September to the 9th of October. The alcohol weighed in at 14.01% with a pH of 3.55 and an IPT of 75. It is aging in French oak barriques, 30% new. Managing director Pierre Graffeuille informed me that this wine is mainly a blend of the younger vines of Léoville Las Cases—three- to 20-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon vines—with some of the old Merlot (40-70 years) from the Las Cases enclosure. "It is a great combo to add old Merlot to young Cabernet Sauvignon!" he commented.
Sporting a deep purple-black color, scents of Black Forest cake, blueberry preserves and ripe, black plums come bounding out of the glass, shadowed by hints of menthol, potpourri, spice cake and clove oil plus a waft of aniseed. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with energetic, juicy black fruits, framed by amazing freshness and ripe, grainy tannins, finishing with a lively, invigorating lift. This is very different from the grand vin and yet is a wonderful alternative expression of the vineyard. For true fans of Las Cases, I would really recommend buying both this and the grand vin, because together they create an even more interesting story of the vintage at this incredible property!

The 2019 Le Petit Lion offers light brambly black fruit laced with browning autumn leaves and Earl Grey on the nose, which is classic in style, fresh and well-defined. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, like the Clos du Marquis, gaining some density and muscle during its élevage. Crisp and quite saline on the finish, this will deserve a little longer in bottle than I anticipated before. Very fine. 14.01% alcohol.