1986 Chateau Leoville Las Cases 2eme Cru Classe, Saint-Julien 1x750ml

Vinous 98

Having tasted the 1986 Leoville Las-Cases countless times, I wondered whether it would ever come round. The news is, it has, and it is beautiful. Stunning delineation on the nose, this has lazer-like focus and breathtaking tension, very mineral-driven with touches of blood orange emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with those once rigid tannins finally softening, layers of black fruit laced with cedar and tobacco with a silky-smooth finish. Heavenly! Tasted at the "Judgement of Clapham Junction" dinner in London. [Neal Martin, 07/03/2022]

Anticipated maturity: 2021-2050

Robert Parker 98

The 1986 Leoville-Las Cases is still so youthful in appearance after 30 years, with only a thin bricking on the rim giving away its age. The bouquet is magnificent: extraordinarily pure and delineated, bewitching black fruit laced with cedar and graphite, the latter lending an almost Pauillac-like personality. The palate is exactly as I have found the previous dozen or so bottles I have tasted: structured, delineated, intense, aristocratic and imperious. It is less formidable than say, ten years ago, so it has probably just stepped onto its drinking plateau. The acidity is perfectly judged lending freshness and tension, crucial to counterbalance those layers of spicy black fruit that fans out with cedar and graphite (again) towards the finish. You come away with the feeling of having consumed a wine with immense energy, yet with so much more to give over the next three decades, and knowing this property, perhaps even the three decades after that! I would agree with the late Michel Delon: the 1986 Leoville Las-Cases is the summit of the 1980s. Tasted September 2016. [Neal Martin, 28/09/2017]

Anticipated maturity: 2016-2060