2025 Leoville Las Cases

Based on a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Merlot that's resting in 80% new barrels, the 2025 Château Léoville Las Cases is one of the wines of the vintage and just has an incredible sense of class, balance, purity, and richness. Harvest began on September 5th, the earliest ever for this estate, wrapping up on the 20th. Cassis, graphite, liquid minerality, and freshly sharpened pencil all define the nose, and it's full-bodied on the palate, with a round, layered mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a blockbuster of a finish. If this doesn't make your eyes roll back in your head, nothing will. It checks in at 13.65% alcohol with a pH of 3.56.

Deep and dark in color, it takes less than a second to know this is a wine that meshes power with concentration, sports a regal bearing, and delivers layer after layer of vibrant blackberries, cassis, currants, and black cherries with ease. The finish is long, expansive, mouth-filling, and powerful, with a strong mineral essence that adds sapidity. This is another Leoville Las Cases that will age and evolve for over 50 years. The wine blends 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 6% Merlot. 13.6% ABV, 3.56 pH. Harvesting took place from September 5 to September 20. Yields were 23 hectoliters per hectare.

The 2025 Léoville Las Cases is powerful, tightly wound and very shut down—in other words, classic Las Cases. In some recent vintages, the Grand Vin has shown somewhat softer contours, but the 2025 is really a throwback to a more muscular, classically austere style. It offers tremendous persistence and sheer power, but beyond that, the wine is pretty hard to read in the early going, certainly much more so than any of the other wines in the Delon stable. I expect this will need many years to be at its most rewarding. Based on this en primeur sample, the 2025 is a wine for readers who have actuarial tables on their side.