A timeless classic, made for connoisseurs

"Medium to full intensity in colour, this is glass-staining ruby and yet another hit from an estate that is making seriously great wine right now. Mint and eucalyptus are clear, tension and grip held through the palate. This has shoulders and swagger to the tannins, pure cassis hit of fruit and some lovely black chocolate and slate overtones along the way. Strays almost to Pauillac in terms of the weight of the tannins, but it's brilliant." Decanter, May 2020

• 96 Pts Decanter, May 2020
  
• 97 Pts Robert Parker

Cellaring: 2029 - 2045

STORY BEHIND THIS WINE

Château Léoville-Barton, arguably the leading name of the so-called “Wine Geese” estates, has a long and colourful history with deep and enduring ties to Ireland. The story begins with Thomas Barton leaving his Fermanagh home for France in 1722 to build on family business connections. Three years later he created his first wine merchant company in Bordeaux. The company prospered but Thomas Barton refused to buy any vineyards owing to a French law which meant that all property owned by foreigners would revert to the French crown on their death.

Indeed, after the family had endured some difficult times, it fell to his grandson, Hugh Barton, to buy the vineyards that carry the family name to this day. In 1821 he bought Château Langoa and, five years later, a plot from the Léoville domaine, which he subsequently renamed Léoville Barton. In 1835 he bought land in Co Kildare upon which he built Straffan House (now the K Club), which would serve as the family home for the following generations and in which Anthony Barton, the current owner of the vineyards in Bordeaux, was born in 1930. He had inherited the vineyards from his uncle, Ronald Barton.

Today, Anthony’s daughter, Lilian Barton Sartorius, the ninth generation, has in turn taken over from her father, helped by her two children Mélanie and Damien. Although only a second growth, according to the 1855 Classification, Léoville Barton has long been considered one of the most outstanding and consistent estates in Bordeaux and one held in great affection by critics and aficionados alike.