2001 Château Léoville Barton- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (11/23/2019)
Decanted for two the three hours, this was classical left-bank Bordeaux from the first sip. Restrained fruit, cedar, earthy, leather and lingering wood spice filled up the palate, and led to a deeply mineral finish with firm but not dry tannin. On the doorstep of full maturity, but not yet through the portal, this is well worth drinking now, but the next three to five years could be pivotal.
The 2001 Montrose was a Rockstar from the vintage. I always enjoy Barton but see the price of this wine is significantly more than what it probably was in 2005.
Nose was awesome, but palate was a couple steps behind. I don’t see it getting any better from here. Only reason for pause with that assessment is this bottle was consumed fairly quickly, and didn’t see much air.
2001 Château Léoville Barton - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (1/1/2024)
– decanted immediately before tasting –
– tasted non-blind over 1.5 hrs. –
NOSE: ripe red fruits; minty; expressive, and starting to present some tertiary character.
BODY: youthful color – violet-garnet with a faint whisper of bricking; color is of medium-deep to deep depth; medium-light to medium bodied.
TASTE: bit watery; some youthful tannin still; medium acidity; light “aged Bdx. funk”; hint of ballpoint pen ink; seems to be in its window right now: Drink Now and over the near term.
If you have multiple, I don’t think you’ll regret that decision. Both myself and Yoni (don’t know if you remember him from awhile back — used to post frequently on ebob, and also here for a little while, way back when) felt the same way — struck us both as a wine unlikely to improve from here on out, with the tannins likely to win-out in the end, over the fruit. The aromatics, alone, however, make this a very pleasurable wine to drink now.
Stood one up for tonight with dry-aged ribeye. Last bottle I had was in the spring of 2020 and the wine was not at all dilute. Someone mentioned 2002 in this thread and I agree - a lot of good wines from a largely ignored vintage. The Leoville-Barton and Las Cases are really, really drinking well and should do so for many more years.
LB 01 is drinking fine and rather fully mature.
Even slightly better is LB 02, but not quite fully mature.
O3 is the best imo - if you accept the style of the vintage.
Tonight’s bottle was lovely - and typical Léoville-Barton. Nothing overdone. Classically tailored Bordeaux, with still a bit of tannin to resolve. Beautiful nose. Wet earth. Black fruits. Just a touch of cedar. Decanted for about 2 1/2 hours. Little sediment. Certainly has many fine years of drinking ahead, but ready to go.
I opened a trio of Leoville Barton during Christmas dinner with my non-winegeek core golf mates who don’t care about being educated on wines but always needle me on to bring some “classy” stuff to drink with our meals. I stood-up all 3 bottles for 5 days and only decanted back into their respective bottles both the 2000 and the 2002. The 2003 was pop-n-poured at the restaurant.
The youngish 2000 clearly was heads and shoulders above the other 2. It had grace, power, balance and all the good Bordeaux stuff. Even my golf dudes were very impressed without me telling them about the general takes on the vintages.
2003 had clear Bordeaux characters and admit that it was an enjoyable drinking even with the ripest fruit and slightest of heat especially near the finish. Nowhere near as good as the 2000, though.
2002 was OK, but clearly lacked the intensity when compared to the other 2. The classic tag, which I often associate with this vintage, seemed to have worn out its usability.
Appreciate this note and the ensuing impressions, as I’m prompted to have a bottle of the 2001 included with my next pull-request from the remote storage.
If you want fruit the '03 has it - I would expect it to outshine the 01 and 02 - not totally surprised '00 bested the '03 - it was an outstanding vintage for sure.
