2025 Leoville Poyferre

Ripe, sexy amounts of red, black, and blue fruits, smoke, tobacco, and scorched earth all define the 2025 Château Léoville Poyferré, a blend of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Petit Verdot. It's full-bodied on the palate, with a round, layered, exuberant mouthfeel, plenty of velvety tannins, and ample mid-palate depth. It's a ripe, opulent, beautifully balanced 2025 in the making.

Tobacco leaves, smoke, flowers, cherries, chocolate, licorice, currants, and espresso beans create the aromatic profile. The palate is even better with its lusciously-textured wealth of sweet, vibrant, and pure, red, with black fruits. There is freshness, vivacity, and creamy tannins which all go together creating a complete, and balanced wine. The finish meshes chocolate with currants, spice and herbs that start off strong, and keep on going. The wine blends 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Petit Verdot. 13.5% ABV, 3.71 pH. Yields were only 20 hectoliters per hectare. Harvesting took place September 8 - September 23. Along with 2022, this is the earliest harvest in the history of the estate. The wine is aging in 80% new, French oak barrels.

Mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot plus smaller amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Cask sample. Deep crimson with purplish rim. Relatively subdued first impression, deep and dark. Both black and blue fruit, so intense it is subdued, and a touch of something floral, a sort of violet sweetness. Extremely compact, refined tannins. Too smooth to be described as chewy but there is so much density here. Not as accessible as some in this vintage but the fruit is rich enough to wait for the tannins. Acidity less noticeable than on the Lagrange just tasted but it is all in harmony for a very long life.