2016 Château Langoa Barton, St Julien, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
Matured in 60% new oak.
Still extremely young, the construction here is clear in that you can feel the architectural hand of 2016 with St-Julien balance. This is rich and deep with intense, concentrated and juicy cassis fruits joined by a touch of sweet liquorice, dark chocolate and charred oak edging. I like the balance here.
Drink 2024 - 2040
Jane Anson, Decanter.com (October 2018)
Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting.
The 2016 Langoa-Barton has a minty-fresh bouquet with plenty of black fruit; hints of pencil shavings and loamy elements develop with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, fleshy and generous, but I was expecting more detail and terroir expression to show on the chewy, pastille-like finish. Very fine, although I suspect there will be melioration in bottle.
Drink 2024 - 2045
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (August 2020)
The 2016 Langoa Barton is succulent, racy and inviting, with striking textural richness and depth. Ripe dark plum, tobacco, cedar, licorice and spice are all generous in this racy, pliant Saint-Julien. The 2016 is an especially fine edition of Langoa-Barton and one of the sleepers of the vintage.
Drink 2022 - 2036
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (January 2019)
The 2016 Langoa Barton is medium to deep garnet-purple coloured and opens with cedar, red and black currants, kirsch and menthol with smoked meats. The palate is medium to full-bodied, firm, grainy and packed with youthful, energetic fruit, finishing long and perfumed.
Drink 2020 - 2035
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (November 2018)
Tasted blind
Spicy, intense and interesting on the nose. Now, this has the class and intensity of a great wine! Polish and salinity, too. Pure pleasure. Long and suave. Lots of minerality.
Drink 2026 - 2045
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (February 2020)
The fresh blueberry, cherry and black currant flavors give this a wide range, while racy graphite and a mouthwatering anise streak drive the finish. The fruit is so enticing that you lose track of how solidly built this is through the finish.
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator (April 2017)
Beautiful aromas of flowers and berries, intermingled in fresh and brambly mode with a cedary edge. This is very fresh. The tannins carve an exceptionally deep, long line through the dark berries and cassis and deliver a very powerful, unwavering finish. This is in great form. Very powerful and focused.
Try from 2024
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2019)
Langoa is vinified and aged in the same way as Léoville Barton, the difference being the terroir and varietal blend—even that is not strikingly different. It has a vibrant and stylish nose with blackcurrant, black fruits, and liquorice. Juicy and full-bodied, it displays swagger, robust tannins, and concentration, but not to excess. It has a vigorous and long finish.
Drink 2023 - 2042
Stephen Brook, Decanter.com
The blend is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, and 8% Cabernet Franc.
Another beautiful Saint-Julien, the 2016 Château Langoa Barton, reveals a saturated purple colour with ample black, plummy, and cherry fruits balanced by notes of scorched earth, liquorice, and earth. This sexy, plump, chewy effort doesn’t give up too much elegance, yet it packs tons of fruit, character, and delicious charm. Drink it over the coming two decades or more. It’s well worth having in your cellar.
Drink 2021 - 2041
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (February 2019)
About this WINE
Chateau Langoa Barton
Château Langoa-Barton, 3rd Classified Growth, was the first of the two Bordeaux wine estates bought by Hugh Barton in the 1820s, the other being Léoville-Barton, 2nd Classified Growth.
Hugh Barton was a descendant of an Irish family which settled in Bordeaux in the 18th century and which has a long and distinguished history in the region’s wine trade. Both properties are still family-owned and run and together represent the longest tradition of unchanged ownership in the Médoc. After the death of the late Anthony Barton in 2022, his daughter Lilian and grandson Damien Barton have now taken the reins.
Langoa Barton has 20 hectares of vineyards (Cabernet Sauvignon 71%, Merlot 21%, Cabernet Franc 8%) lie on gravelly-clay soils. Vinification includes 18 months' maturation in oak barriques (50% new). Langoa Barton is vinified and matured in exactly the same way as Léoville-Barton and any difference between them must be put down to variations in the soils and exposure of their respective vineyard blocks.
Both Langoa and Léoville wines are models of typical St Julien restraint and elegance, and the château’s fair pricing policy, always with an eye to the long term , has won it many loyal friends amongst its customers. For years, Langoa Barton was considered slightly lighter and more forward than Léoville. However, in the last decade it has become noticeably deeper in colour and richer and more concentrated on the palate. Langoa Barton is now often the equal of Léoville.
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 Cases, Ch.Léoville Barton, Ch Léoville Poyferré, Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou, Ch Langoa Barton, Ch Gruaud Larose, Ch. Branaire-Ducru, Ch. Beychevelle
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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Description
Cabernet Sauvignon 55%; Merlot 37%; Cabernet Franc 8%.
This wine has a wonderful dark purple hue and a very strong, fine colour this year. It has notes of cedar, mint, and pine. On the palate, it is sappy and bright with a suave texture and grippy tannins. The vines here are grown on deep gravel over a clay subsoil. It finishes long, with a saline finish.
Berry Bros. & Rudd
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