2015 Leoville Las Cases

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.

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

Richer and more demonstrative than the 2016, the 2015 Léoville Las Cases dodders up generous aromas of sweet berries, pencil shavings and loamy soil, framed by a deft application of creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, broad and expansive, with a fleshy core of fruit, succulent acids and a giving, gourmand profile, like many 2015s from the Northern Médoc, it's already quite structurally open today, and it will likely attain its peak before both the 2014 and 2016 vintages that bookend it. For many consumers, that may be an advantage.