★

4.82/5

4 pictures

Chateau Leoville Las Cases 1989

Name: Chateau Leoville Las Cases 1989
Brand: Château Léoville Las Cases
SKU: 1022/89
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.82 (1188 reviews)

Bordeaux

Saint-Julien

- Red - See details

Parker | 91

Wine Spectator | 96

Decanter | 98

R. Gabriel | 18

J. Robinson | 17

Vinous - A. Galloni | NM88

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ALL VINTAGES OF THIS WINE

All Château Léoville Las Cases wines

Marks and reviews

/100

Wine Spectator

Very ripe, with raisin and dried fruits on the nose. You can smell the sun-dried grapes. Full-bodied, delivering firm tannins and a very fresh palate. Long and flavorful, offering currant, berries and all sorts of dark fruits, but turns lightly earthy and floral. This is a thoroughly complex wine. Just starting to really open into the mature 20-year-old wine it is, but such a great life ahead of it. Muscular. -- '89/'99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now.

/100

Decanter

1989 was an early year, with flowering three weeks ahead of usual. Now at 30 years old, a floral aspect curls out of the glass, with touches of roses and peonies, followed on the palate by bilberries and blackberries, with a cigar smoke and eucalyptus finish. It's still vigorous in its tannic structure, but it's soft and supple enough to enjoy today. This bottle was recorked by hand at the winery last year, with five people checking every single one of the 5,000 bottles remaining at the chateau. The wines were topped up from magnums of the 1989. 3% Petit Verdot completes the blend - a variety not used in the grand vin since 1996.

/100

Vinous

Neal Martin

The 1989 Léoville Las-Cases came from a bottle that was recorked in 2017 at the property. The bouquet is rather muted, quite rustic and earthy in style, lacking the breeding that Jean-Hubert Delon instills nowadays. The palate is medium-bodied with soft tannins. Rustic red fruit mingles with iron ore, orange peel, game and bacon fat notes. Old-school in style but missing the backbone and tension, the precision synonymous with this estate. Overall, it is slightly underperforming in the context of the vintage. Tasted at the property and in London, both bottles ex-château.

/100

Jeff Leve

Leve Jeff

Fully mature, medium-bodied wine, blending classic character with elegance and a touch of austerity. The wine shows cassis, sweet and tart cherry, cedar, tobacco, and a hint of green. The tannins have softened, making it fun to drink, but the short finish and lack of depth keep the score from going higher.

/100

Jeb Dunnuck

I thought the 1989 Château Leoville Las Cases showed brilliantly, with a classy, elegant, regal feel that's very much in the style of the estate. Certainly in its prime drink window, it has lots of pure cassis and darker fruits as well as graphite, scorched earth, tobacco, and hints of saddle leather. Medium-bodied on the palate, it's balanced, has a pure, layered mouthfeel, resolved tannins, and outstanding length. While it doesn't hit the same heights as the 1982, 2000, 2003, 2009, or more recent vintages, it's a classic example of this terroir that will continue to evolve gracefully for another two decades.

/100

Jane Anson

An estate with the natural power and freshness in the soils of Las Cases is always worth seeking out in hot vintages like 1989. This shows fleshy black fruits, spice, cigar box and rich seams of black truffle, fully mature, almost more so than the 1970 if you can believe it. Gentle tannins, mouthwatering, a wine that sits more within the finessed personality of St Julien than many Las Cases. 50% new oak, harvest September 5 to 25. Michel Delon the owner, 3rd generation of the family to do so, renowned for his exceptional cellar, who liked to swap cases of his own wine with Burgundian winemakers such as Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault. This bottle isn’t showing quite as well as the one I had last year (in fact we opened two bottles to find the best one), but it’s worth the gamble if you can track one down.

Description

Tasting Notes and Recommendations for Château Léoville Las Cases 1989

Tasting

Appearance

The wine displays a deep ruby-red color with blue-black highlights, characteristic of this outstanding terroir.

Nose

The bouquet reveals remarkable aromatic complexity. Notes of blackcurrant and blackberry intertwine with aromas of tobacco, cedar, and graphite. With aeration, the nose evolves toward nuances of truffle, forest floor, and dried flowers, accompanied by subtle hints of cigar box and sweet spices. This aromatic palette reflects the wine’s graceful evolution in bottle.

Palate

On the palate, the wine shows a medium to medium-full body with refined elegance. The attack reveals ripe dark fruits—blackcurrant and black cherry—carried by silky, perfectly integrated tannins. The velvety texture coats the palate as notes of chocolate, mocha, and minerality gradually emerge. The balance between fruit, tannic structure, and lively freshness gives the wine remarkable harmony. The finish lingers at length on aromas of tobacco and minerality, with an elegance characteristic of the Saint-Julien appellation.

Food and Wine Pairing

This Château Léoville Las Cases 1989 pairs beautifully with roasted or grilled red meats, feathered and furred game, as well as braised lamb. It also matches well with duck preparations, mushroom-based dishes in sauce, or even seared tuna. Aged hard cheeses also make a harmonious pairing.

Serving and Cellaring

Château Léoville Las Cases 1989 is best served at a temperature between 16 and 18°C. Decanting for one to two hours helps separate any sediment and fully reveal the wine’s aromatic complexity. At peak maturity, this vintage offers immediate drinking pleasure while retaining enough structure to continue evolving favorably over the coming years under optimal cellaring conditions.

A Great Saint-Julien at the Height of Its Expression

The Estate

Created between 1826 and 1840 when the former Domaine de Léoville was divided, Château Léoville Las Cases is a Second Growth of Bordeaux, in the Saint-Julien AOC in Saint-Julien-Beychevelle. A family-owned property since the end of the 19th century, it is now owned and run by Jean-Hubert Delon, sole proprietor. The vineyard covers 98 hectares, including the Grand Clos—50 hectares enclosed by walls—near Pauillac. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc come together to produce a great wine recognized worldwide for its consistent quality and exceptional aging potential.

The Vineyard

The Château Léoville Las Cases vineyard benefits from a privileged location on the left bank of the Gironde estuary, in the Saint-Julien appellation. The famous 53-hectare Grand Clos, entirely surrounded by walls, rests on a terroir of deep gravel soils. This proximity to the estuary creates a microclimate favorable to optimal grape ripening. The cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc varieties thrive on these exceptional soils to produce wines of great finesse and remarkable aromatic complexity.

The Vintage

The 1989 vintage remains one of the most exceptional in the recent history of the Bordeaux region. The year was marked by a mild winter followed by an early spring that advanced flowering by three weeks. The summer proved extraordinarily hot and dry, even exceeding the temperatures of 1949. These remarkable weather conditions allowed for outstanding grape ripening. Harvesting began as early as August 31, a historically early date. Merlot reached remarkable levels of ripeness and concentration, while cabernet sauvignon was picked slightly before full phenolic maturity, giving the vintage its distinctive character of elegance and refinement.

Winemaking and Aging

The grapes for Château Léoville Las Cases 1989 were hand-harvested and carefully sorted. Parcel-by-parcel vinification took place in vats, with regular pump-overs during a maceration period of three to four weeks. After alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, the wine was aged in French oak barrels for around eighteen months. The final blend was assembled before bottling, allowing the different components to integrate perfectly and create the final expression of this great Saint-Julien wine.

Grape varieties

Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc