Ratings By Robert Parker 98 Tasting Notes I have had this wine three times out of bottle, rating it 97 once and 98 twice. It is a colossal success and a potential legend in the making. Its saturated, dense inky/blue/purple color offers up notes of crushed rocks, acacia flowers, blueberries, black raspberries, and creme de… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 90 Tasting Notes This wine has completely shut down since it??s been bottled but exhibits a saturated ruby/purple color, high levels of tannin, and sweet, noble black currant fruit intermixed with some licorice, espresso roast, and pain grille. In the vernacular, it is closed for business, with medium to full body,… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 90 Tasting Notes 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… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 97 Tasting Notes I found this to be one of the more backward wines of the 2000 vintage and gave it a window of maturity of 2015-2040 when I reviewed it in 2003. In my two recent tastings of it, I changed that window to 2018-2050, which probably says more than… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 89 Tasting Notes Dry tannin and a backward, austere, muscular, brooding personality characterize Leoville Barton’s 1999. However, it is packed with grip, body, and depth. Give it 5-6 years of cellaring and hope the tannin melts away sufficiently for the fruit to come forward. It should last for two decades, but… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 88 Tasting Notes This opaque purple-colored, muscular, full-bodied, classically made St.-Julien displays impressive concentration, chewy, highly-extracted flavors of black fruits, iron, earth, and spicy wood, and a powerful mouth-feel. A pure, uncompromising, traditionally-styled wine, it is to be admired for its authenticity, class, and quality. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2035. Readers seeking classic,… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 87 Tasting Notes Medium ruby with purple nuances, this ripe St.-Julien exhibits delicious, sweet cassis fruit mixed with high quality toasty oak. The wine possesses fat, accessible fruit flavors, attractive glycerin, and no hardness. Neither big nor muscular, it is a medium-bodied, elegant, savory, charming, and delicious effort to be enjoyed… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 93 Tasting Notes This fabulous 1996 was tasted three times from bottle, and it is unquestionably the finest wine produced by this estate since their blockbuster 1990. Medium to full-bodied, with a saturated black/purple color, the nose offers notes of cedar, jammy black fruits, smoke, truffles, and subtle new oak. In… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 90 Tasting Notes While not as backward as the 1996, the opaque purple-colored 1995 is a tannic, unevolved, dense, concentrated wine that will require 8-10 years of cellaring. The 1995 exhibits pain grille, blackcurrant, mineral, and subtle tobacco in its complex yet youthful aromatics. Powerful, dense, concentrated cassis and blueberry flavors… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 92 Tasting Notes Typically extracted and powerful (which is atypical in a vintage such as 2008), this offering may lack charm, but it is ????locked and loaded?? with plenty of background oak, huge black cherry and black currant fruit, medium to full body and a boatload of tannin. Forget it for… Read More »