2001 Château Léoville Poyferré, St Julien, Bordeaux

2001 Château Léoville Poyferré, St Julien, Bordeaux

Product: 20018002158
 
2001 Château Léoville Poyferré, St Julien, Bordeaux

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Description

This has a ripe, creamy bouquet with a lot of well-subsumed new oak matched by clean, plum- and blackberry-scented fruit interlaced with cedar. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, and there's good structure, with notes of blackberry and cedar.
Christmas Cheer, Country Life, 23 November 2011

Ch Leoville Poyferré, a 2nd Classified Growth property, has been in the Cuvelier family since 1921 and under the recent stewardship of Didier Cuvelier it has scaled new heights, often rivalling the very best in its category and emerging from the shadow of its two illustrious Leoville neighbours, Barton and Las Cases.

The style is pure St Julien, all elegance and breed, with a notable silky texture in recent vintages. The grapes are fermented in 35 separate stainless steel tanks after which the wine is put into barrel where it undergoes malolactic fermentation. It then spends around 18 months in wood, 75% new, before bottling. 2001 is inevitably overshadowed somewhat by the greatness of 2000, but deserves recognition as a fine, classically-styled vintage in its own right.
65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc.

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate90/100
Sweet notions of plums, black currants, caramel, and spicy oak are provocative and alluring. Subtle but substantial, layered, and textured, with medium body as well as sexy, up-front flavors, low acidity, and ripe tannin, this beauty is among the most evolved and flamboyant of the appellation. Nevertheless, it should age well. Anticipated maturity: now-2016.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 30/06/2004 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW17.5/20
Still quite youthful crimson. Attractively scented. Lively and both juicy at first and then dry on the finish. Not forced. Very user friendly. This Ch Léoville Poyferré 2001 is just a bit juicier than the Barton.
Jancis Robinson - Bordeaux 2001s 10 years on - janicsrobinson.com - 30 Mar 2011 Read more
Wine Gang91/100
While the 2003 vintage in the same tasting felt a little baked, this had lashings more smokiness, in a developed fashion rather than a hot-vintage one. Still showing enough youth in tannin but also at an eminently drinkable stage, with lovely soft waves of cassis,  violets and then a richer gamey note towards the end.
The Wine Gang, October 2012 Read more

About this WINE

Château Léoville Poyferré

Château Léoville Poyferré

Château Léoville Poyferré is a wine estate in St Julien on the Left Bank of Bordeaux. It was once part a larger estate called Léoville, which was established in 1638 and divided up centuries later following the death of its owner. That original estate gave rise to the three separate properties now called Léoville Barton, Léoville Las Cases and Léoville Poyferré. The latter took its name in 1840 from Baron Jean-Marie de Poyferré, who inherited the estate along with his wife, the daughter of Jeanne de Las Cases. Léoville Poyferré, like Barton and Las Cases, was ranked a Second Growth in the 1855 classification.

The estate has been owned and run since 1920 by the Cuvelier family. Having established themselves as wine merchants in Lille in Northern France, the family had recently bought Château Le Crock in St Estèphe before expanding into St Julien with both Léoville Poyferré and Château Moulin Riche. The family firm is led today by Sara Lecompte Cuvelier, who took over from her uncle Didier Cuvelier in 2017. She works with long-time winemaker Isabelle Davin. Michel Rolland has been the consultant here since the mid-1990s.

The portfolio here includes the grand vin, Château Léoville Poyferré, along with the estate’s second wine, Pavillon de Léoville Poyferré. Moulin Riche was once considered an unofficial second wine of Léoville Poyferré but has since 2009 been very much its own estate wine.

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St Julien

St Julien

St Julien is the smallest of the "Big Four" Médoc communes. Although, without any First Growths, St Julien is recognised to be the most consistent of the main communes, with several châteaux turning out impressive wines year after year. 

St Julien itself is much more of a village than Pauillac and almost all of the notable properties lie to its south. Its most northerly château is Ch. Léoville Las Cases (whose vineyards actually adjoin those of Latour in Pauillac) but,  further south, suitable vineyard land gives way to arable farming and livestock until the Margaux appellation is reached.  

The soil is gravelly and finer than that of Pauillac, and without the iron content which gives Pauillac its stature. The homogeneous soils in the vineyards (which extend over a relatively small area of just over 700 hectares) give the commune a unified character.

The wines can be assessed as much by texture as flavour, and there is a sleek, wholesome character to the best. Elegance, harmony and perfect balance and weight, with hints of cassis and cedar, are what epitomise classic St Julien wines. At their very best they combine Margaux’s elegance and refinement with Pauillac’s power and substance.

Ch. Léoville Las Cases produces arguably the most sought-after St Julien, and in any reassessment of the 1855 Classification it would almost certainly warrant being elevated to First Growth status.

Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Léoville Las CasesCh.Léoville Barton, Ch Léoville Poyferré, Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou, Ch Langoa Barton, Ch Gruaud Larose, Ch. Branaire-Ducru, Ch. Beychevelle

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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