CHATEAU LEOVILLE-LAS-CASES 2eme Grand Cru Classe Saint-Julien 1986 Bottle NO DISCOUNT - 40 years old in 2026

Description

A classic Bordeaux with a deep garnet colour, offering an elegant nose of dark cherry, blackberry, and cedar. On the palate, it displays refined tannins, with rich bramble fruit and subtle spice notes. The well-balanced acidity provides structure and complexity, leading to a long, persistent finish. A mature, sophisticated Saint-Julien with great ageing potential, showcasing a harmonious blend of fruit and tertiary flavours.

THE WINE ADVOCATE 98 points
'...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 Léoville Las-Cases is the summit of the 1980s.' Tasted September 2016.
Drink: 2016-2060