Beschreibung:

Château Léoville-Las-Cases Jean-Hubert-Delon is an exact replica of his father Michel : at first impression rather unyielding and stern in demeanour but with an incredible warmth of generosity – especially if you are lucky enough to be invited to lunch ! Their wines reflect their persons : you are confronted at first with a great wall of strong tannin that becomes gradually penetrated by a warmth of totally ripe and Cabernet-dominated fruit. Even their cigar-smoke seems reflected in the havana scents of the wine's oakiness ! Their cellarmasters, with whom I have done most of my tastings, are also a father-to-son team, working hand-in-hand with the Delons in the same uncompromising way, now Bruno Rolland who took over from his father Michel. Conversations during these tastings are almost always about the style of the year in question and rarely about any particular vineyard or winemaking events, which are all described in a very detailed technical pamphlet for each vintage. The vineyard, in two distinct parts, 'L'Enclos' looking over the river and the 'Clos du Marquis' on a strip of vineyard the other side of the road, is meticulously managed. I was coming back to Bordeaux from a rather long château dinner early one morning in the middle of the 2003 heat-wave and, glancing in to the Las Cases courtyard as I drove by, I saw the vineyard staff in line being briefed about the day's work: it must have been 4 am : in that extreme heat, it would have been detrimental to the vines to work them at any other time. Of the wines offerred today, the '75 is now fully mature, with a very evolved but recognisably Las Cases type of cedarwood, licorice and havana aromas and a very finely woven tannic surround ; the '82 is still just as concentrated, corpulent and richly tannic as it always was. Michel found it 'unclassical' whilst I thought it was just 'fabulously classical' with tannins that are only just now becoming pernetrable ; the '83 was always one of my unexpected favourites, seductively creamy and rich for the vintage ; the '85, so fresh, almost sweet and sensual in its infancy, later became denser in structure and was drinking beautifully from magnum six months ago ; the '89 I misjudged at first, thinking it was lighter than it should have been but, as it evolved, it put on weight – just like Michel said it would – and recently was very mature but very impressive and curiously more exotic than the '90 ; the '93 was always, right out of the starting blocks, a great success for such a light vintage : 'spherical' and solid ; the '95, with a lot of the Merlots selected out of the Grand Vin, is traditionally and powerfully classic Cabernet Sauvignon, almost Pauillac in its power that withstands it high proportion (75%) of new oak ; the '99, on the other hand, had the smallest percentage of new oak ever (50%), providing a purer fruit expression, quite unusual for Las Cases ; the '00 is back to the '95 solid style and needs more ageing. Château Léoville-Las-Cases 1975 Saint-Julien, 2ème cru classé In original wooden case. Corroded and damaged capsules. Three bin-soiled and damaged labels. Nine badly bin-soiled and damaged labels. Levels: top-shoulder or better 12 bottles per lot