Château Léoville Barton 2022

The 2022 Léoville Barton is performing brilliantly in bottle, wafting from the glass with aromas of cassis, pencil shavings, pen ink, cigar box and spices. Medium to full-bodied, suave and velvety, it's dense and concentrated, with terrific energy and persistence. As readers will remember, it's the first vintage produced in the estate's new winery, which more than doubled the number of vats, permitting sub-plot by sub-plot harvesting and vinification, along with a number of other technical improvements that translate into enhanced purity and precision.

Chewy, lively, bright, clean, intense, sleek, sharp and straight - this has it all. Excellent definition and poise, refined but still full of life and flavour. Appealing shots of milk chocolate, blackcurrant, black cherry and fragranced flowers. Not so dense or layered or plush, more lean, and straightforward but lovely detail and precision to the tannins balancing the density of fruit and energy of the lively acidity. Fun, serious, fruity, mineral - lots going on here. Simply gorgeous! I love it. Harvest 8-23 September. Yield of 30hl/ha.

Shows restraint in this opulent year. Quite complete and refined, and you immediately pick up a bit of sweetness from the fruit of this vintage, but it is not over the top. A lot of finesse and length, with structured, dusty tannins. A no-brainer buy from the vintage. 60% new oak. 83% cabernet sauvignon, 11.5% merlot and 5.5% cabernet franc. Drink from 2027.

Deep dark ruby, opaque core, purple reflections, brightening on the rim. Delicate chocolate, underlay of dark wild berries, ripe plums, blackberries and liquorice. Complex, cool, mineral body, integrated firm tannins, cherries on the finish, lingers very long with a salty echo. Shows certain ageing potential; a great future.