2023, Château Langoa Barton, SAINT-JULIEN, 3ème Grand Cru Classé

Last Year EP $74.00-

Léoville Barton's smaller sister château has been producing increasingly excellent wines in recent vintages. Grape varieties, viticulture and vinification are similar to those of Léoville. 2023 is 60% cabernet sauvignon, 37% merlot and 3% cabernet franc.

Solid tannins, gorgeous iris and violet reflections, blueberry and cassis fruits, shot through with cigar box, this is a fairly old school Langoa in the best possibly way, juicy, sapppy, nuanced, with chalky tannins that lift through the palate.
94 Jane Anson.

There’s depth of fruit here with blackberries, blackcurrants and hints of cedar and tobacco. The tannins are very solid and polished with juiciness and depth. Pristine. Bright acidity.
94-95 James Suckling

The 2023 Langoa Barton is a very accomplished wine, the family's new winery having permitted more precise, parcel-by-parcel winemaking as well as gentler handling of the fruit to deliver a wine with all this estate's customary intensity of flavour but more polish and refinement. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cassis and plums mingled with hints of pencil shavings and dried rose petals, it's medium to full-bodied, with an inky core of fruit, vibrant acids and plenty of suave structuring tannin. Sure to number among the more intelligent purchases of the en primeur campaign.
93-95 William Kelley.

The 2023 Langoa Barton has some “serious colour,” according to Damien Barton. Matured in 60% new oak, it has a very perfumed bouquet with black plum, boysenberry and a touch of mint. This is notably forward and unabashed. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, a sorbet-fresh Langoa with a bright, almost pastille-like finish that lingers in the mouth. Very seductive and vivacious, I appreciate the nascent energy here.
91-93 Neal Martin.