Chateau Leoville Barton 2006

There's a great dark color to this, with intense aromas of cedar, wood, new leather and crushed blackberry. Full-bodied, with loads of fruit and a firm, powerful palate. Long and mouthpuckering. A muscular baby. Best after 2015. 18,750 cases made.

This wine has spent much of the last 10 years closed and is just starting to open up, loosening the grip of its tannins. Now moving into the next phase of its life, I like the uncoiling of this previously tightly knit structure, and the dark heft of cassis and bilberry. The mid-palate is purposeful with a great kick on the finish. Lovely potential.

Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Very dense and pungent. A Léoville? Real intensity. (JR)

Tobacco, cigar box, cedar wood and spicy red fruits make up the bouquet. Still deep in color, there is some lightening at the edges of the glass that is becoming apparent. Austere in character, the Cabernet Sauvignon is fresh, crisp and tannic. This clearly needs several more years before it becomes truly approachable.

From one of my favorite estates in Saint-Julien, the 2006 Château Léoville Barton is now fully mature (yet certainly youthful) and has a complex, layered profile that includes ample red and black fruits as well as perfumed notes of leafy herbs, cedar pencil, tobacco, and hints of crushed stone. Medium to full-bodied, nicely balanced, and textured, it has the more focused, straight, classic style of this château front and center, with integrated yet still present tannins, beautiful overall balance, and a great finish. A classy, layered, complex, textbook Bordeaux, it's going to continue drinking nicely for another two decades, with a gradual decline after that.

Very deep, dark violet-purple with black highlights at the core. Beautiful, delicate bouquet with many facets: perfumed cassis, fine blackberry notes, sweet noble wood, mocha, almost tenderly caressing the nose. Exquisitely fine palate, creamy tannins, fruit staying in the blue and black berry register, a hint of coconut rounding out the finish of this seductive wine that may be early-maturing.

Very deep, dark violet-purple with black highlights at the core. Beautiful, fine bouquet with many facets: perfumed cassis, subtle blackberry notes, sweet precious wood, mocha—almost a tender caress on the nose. Exquisitely fine palate, creamy tannins, the fruit stays in the blue- and black-berry spectrum, a hint of coconut rounds off the finish of this decidedly sensual wine, possibly already early-drinking. 08: Just before bottling. Perfumed, exquisitely fragrant Cabernet at its peak. Grand and refined! 09: Deep, dense purple-garnet. Dark fine woods, olives, Valrhona chocolate, dense, generous nose, Harlan Napa tones. Extremely dense palate, lots of substance, flesh and fine rounded tannins, blackcurrant notes, a fairly masculine monument, perhaps the greatest Barton of the modern era, which will really hit its stride only in 10 years. Are 20 points on the cards here? 10: Tasted the same day from magnum and double magnum. Plenty of power, great depth and massive potential. Brilliant—but far too early. (19/20). 12: Dark wine-red, ruby rim. Completely closed, almost no communication, chocolate biscuits, pumpernickel bread, black olives, but, as said, very restrained. Meaty palate, the tannins show quite fine and convey a certain sweetness, black peppercorns, noble astringency on the finish that ends with a hint of dark Bounty (chocolate-coconut). Wait another 10 years. At least 19/20. 13: WILL THE 2006 BE A 20-POINT BARTON? Already during decanting at the big Barton vertical, it smelled from afar wonderfully of great Bordeaux, and it was the darkest—almost black—wine of the tasting! It was just as fantastic to taste. After an hour in the glass, I drank the last sip, not without first drawing that baroque perfume once more into my nostrils. Minerality, yes, very clearly. Minerality in the form of truffle, turpentine and tar. A grand terroir cinema on the nose. On the palate, just a hair’s breadth from the maximum score. I think this is one of Barton’s greatest candidates, with 20/20 within reach. It was the densest when poured and had the most sediment, a saturated, almost impenetrable purple-black. The bouquet shows meaty, bloody notes like a great Hermitage. And that is exactly how it continues on the extremely concentrated palate: lots of meat on the bone, plenty of grainy tannin on the tongue and plenty of muscle in the astringency. A still stern Barton with a marked tannic stamp reminiscent of its younger brother Langoa. It had the most aromatic finish of all the Bartons tasted. The equally brilliant 2005 is, in character, a lady; the 2006, a gentleman. (19/20). 17: The tannins are slowly rounding out, but this Barton, which already appears almost monumental, is still far from true drinking maturity. (19/20). 21: Saturated, dark purple. The bouquet has developed little in recent years. You still get many raw Cabernet traces, fresh wood and green pepper. The fruit is almost exclusively black-berried. At least it is no longer as stubborn on the nose as a few years ago. It goes deep, shows a baroque side, and you almost have to be a soothsayer to explain it at this stage. On the palate, a real chunk of a wine. Blind, you’d more likely drift to Pauillac, so meaty, concentrated and masculine it is. The potential is still huge, and a first real drinking window will likely only open from 2030. And whoever gets to experience that “right moment” can expect to have the greatest Barton of this era in the glass. Then 20/20 will be within reach. P.S. After tasting, the flavor of cassis and blueberry lingered on the palate for minutes. (19/20).

The 2006 Léoville Barton has a deep brick color. It skips out of the glass with cheery, carefree notes of black cherry compote, redcurrant jelly, and cassis, followed by wafts of dried roses, cinnamon toast, and crushed stones. The light- to medium-bodied palate has a rock-solid structure of chewy tannins and just enough freshness to support the generous fruit, finishing long and earthy.

Dense texture, very ripe grape flavor with notes of eucalyptus, full body for the vintage.

The 2006 bouquet shows many facets, combining paradoxes that oscillate between maturity and youth, between forest floor and graphite, with hints of pine needles and licorice. It reveals itself slowly and makes it clear that it is still at the beginning of its life. Like the nose, the wine combines freshness, breadth, and power. Its tannins emerge on the finish and fully live up to this wine’s promised cellaring ambitions. A truly fine and great success.

The nose offers aromatic power, a subtle incisive edge, and fine concentration. It reveals notes of wild blackberry, ripe wild blackcurrant, and, more delicately, fleshy strawberry, with fine touches of small berries, a hint of violet, subtle notes of vanilla blossom, toast, and an imperceptible hint of cornflower and pepper in the background. The palate is fruity and offers juiciness, a tangy spine, lovely precision, smoothness, fine structure, energy, very fine concentration, and a delightful quality of juicy/ripe/fresh, precise fruit. On the palate, this wine expresses notes of fleshy strawberry, fleshy raspberry and, more slightly, crushed blackcurrant, with fine touches of violet, Bourbon vanilla, toast, and an imperceptible hint of truffle in the background. Lovely tannic structure! Lovely tang/freshness!

The score here is once again identical to the one given at the time of the en primeur tastings. I still think this wine is even better than the 2005: its tannins are riper. Beautiful, deep color. Fresh, delicate, fruity, complex nose. It smells of cherry, vanilla, and cocoa. On the palate, the wine unfolds with richness and breadth from the very attack. Very aromatic, with notes of licorice and flowers, it develops on fine, consistently coated tannins. A very beautiful finish with nuanced grain and floral aromas. I’ll wait to see it in bottle to know what it will become. I find it has great potential.

Right at the top of its form, this 2006 is one of the finest wines to come out of the vintage. The wine is structured and dense, but with such heartwarming ripe fruit that the tannins are almost submerged. There is just a hint of wood, but juicy black currant continues right through to the end. In a year, the fruit will lessen, and long aging begin.

The 2006 Léoville Barton has an open, sapid nose with a little more delineation than the ’06 Langoa. A conspicuous marine scent develops with aeration. The palate is smooth on the entry with fine acidity, quite intense for the vintage, with liquorice-laced black fruit and earthy notes. Like the Langoa, the season just denies it the complexity and elegance of a very top vintage on the finish. Still, this is a lovely Barton with a long, peppery aftertaste.