Château Léoville Las Cases 2015

It confirms its immense greatness, with an intensity of flavor and captivating fruit expression. Like a baritone, it has real depth and resonance, while proving less impenetrable than other illustrious vintages.

An almost Burgundian Las Cases, combining richness and density with breed and tension, without sidelining elegance.

Filled with blackberry, black currant, fig and boysenberry preserve flavors, this starts off showy, but a back end of brambly grip, warm tar, and pastis-soaked apple wood emerges slowly before taking an authoritative lead on the finish. All the while, a cool charcoal note weaves in and around everything. Best from 2025 through 2045. 16,667 cases made.

Las Cases at its imperious best, a Cabernet-based wine vinified in old oak vats then aged in mostly new barrels. The nose is magnificent, sumptuous and oaky, luxurious and opulent, with intense blackcurrant fruit. The expected density on the palate, depth and power, polished tannins. Spicy and complex, the finish is monumental.

Blackcurrant, blueberry and currant aromas with hints of black licorice and hot stones. Full-bodied with dense and integrated tannins and a long, long finish. It is all there and all about proportional harmony. Excellent focus and beauty. Drink in 2022.

The 2015 Léoville Las-Cases has an intense bouquet with blackberry, cedar, tobacco, mint and juniper aromas developing in the glass. This is utterly compelling. The palate is very well balanced with more weight and density than the Poyferré. It's spicier with hints of black pepper and cumin toward the persistent finish. This still requires time in bottle but it has huge potential. Tasted at the 2015 Ten-Year-On tasting at Bordeaux Index.

Dark in color and fruit, this is powerful, concentrated, firm, elegant and really packs a punch. The deep black fruits are soft and flood the palate. Here you find a massive wall of tannin, but the tannins are so ripe and polished you almost don’t notice them. The finish is long, lingering and expansive. Give this at least a decade or more before popping a cork.

Dark ruby with purple reflections and delicate rim brightening. Fine nuances of nougat and liquorice, fresh blackberry fruit all underpinned by delicate fine oak savouriness and a hint of caramel in the background, a multi-faceted bouquet. Juicy and elegant, pleasant cherry fruit, fine, well integrated tannins, mineral and long. Already seems quite accessible but has handsome reserves for ageing.

A legendary wine in the making from the Delon Family is the 2015 Leoville Las Cases and there are very few wines more impressive in the vintage. A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Merlot, this full-bodied, tight, super-concentrated, focused 2015 boasts an awesome bouquet of crème de cassis, graphite, charcoal, lead pencil, and minerality. Deep, layered, with perfect ripeness and building tannin, hide bottle for 6-7 years and enjoy this prodigious effort over the following 3-4 decades.

We are here in signature Las Cases territory: a slow burn, an apparently delicate, lace-like tannic structure that is so St-Julien, then building into a powerful, Pauillac-like squeeze of tannins halfway through the palate. This is an impressively constructed wine, with liquorice, cassis, bilberry and rosebud. Not the most muscular Las Cases (and certainly a long way from the brilliance of 2016), but joyful, and standing on the edge of its drinking window, which is rare in the world of this powerful 2nd Growth, making it one to look out for. Aged in 50% new oak.

The 2015 Leoville Las Cases is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Merlot and is deep garnet in color. It prances out with showy scents of raspberry preserves, warm cassis, and chocolate-covered cherries, plus hints of tar, tapenade, crushed rocks, and unsmoked cigars. Medium-bodied, the palate is so velvety and refreshing, delivering delicately played black fruits with loads of earthy accents and compelling restraint on the finish.

With a dark hue, the nose is fairly discreet. The wine is dense and firm, with precision and fine, polished tannins; it is long and racy overall, in a more Pauillac-like style with plenty of Cabernet, yet it still shows a lovely suppleness. In fact, it is more charming than usual, fairly alcoholic (13.80%). It clearly ranks among the great Las Cases in history. It is composed of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot.

The nose is fruity, elegant, indulgent and delicate, with a touch of concentration. It reveals fine notes of blackberry alongside hints of blackcurrant, a touch of strawberry compote, a floral note (iris, violet), as well as subtle/discreet nuances of oak, tobacco, sweet spices and minty licorice. The palate is fruity, gourmand, elegant, characterful, mineral, complex, harmonious and fine, offering a lovely silky texture, a mineral backbone and tension. On the palate, this wine shows notes of blackberry and blackcurrant with a subtle touch of blueberry, joined by delicate notes of cherry (in the background), licorice and gentle sweet-spice/vanilla accents. The tannins are fine and elegant. Good length and persistence. A very lovely wine!