2005 Ch. Léoville-Barton, St Julien

(Wines of the Year - Highly Recommended 4/5 Stars- Decanter Nov 08)
There can surely be few other estates in Bordeaux that are as consistently brilliant as Léoville-Barton. This is incredibly classy, with very concentrated, rich, restrained black fruits, and hints of cedar, minerals and cigar box. It is all in absolutely perfect balance with a wonderful freshness and sublime elegance amid lashings of fruit and very fine tannins. Amazing stuff.

Sweet, vanilla fruit, crusted black fruit. Appealing. Sweet, floral perfumed oak, good depth and ripe, very attractive with good length to balance oak.
(4/5 stars - Medoc 2005 - Decanter Award Winner - July 08)

Another prodigious, but brutally tannic, offering from the affable Anthony Barton, the inky/blue/black-hued 2005 Leoville Barton exhibits a sensational perfume of charcoal, burning embers, underbrush, cedar, creme de cassis, and subtle toasty oak. Painfully concentrated (much like the 2000 was at the same stage), with full body, admirable purity, and several boatloads of muscular tannin, this St.-Julien is built for 50-60 years of cellaring. Its purity and precision are typical of today's winemaking, but Barton is certainly not making a wine for near-term gratification. This is another 2005 that will require enormous patience. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2065.
(Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - 30-Apr-2008)