2016 Château Léoville Barton Saint-Julien 750 ml

Wine Spectator announced the #1 Wine of 2019 on November 18th—and it happens that we already had a very limited inventory set aside for us in the chateau’s damp, cool cellars.

If you want in on the thrilling 2016 Château Léoville Barton—“the best blue-chip buy you can get in age-worthy Bordeaux,” says Spectator senior editor James Molesworth—order now because the critical acclaim around this bottle has decimated allocations to next to nothing, and we don't expect an opportunity to re-up on this release.

The fact that it’s consistently one of the most honest and fairly priced estates on the Left Bank (they actually sent a formal apology when the price reached $100), boasting off-the-charts value for the cost, is another reason why collectors are jumping at the chance to put this blue-blood claret in their cellars. 

We’ve long adored Léoville Barton for its elegance, class, and longevity and this 2016 has those characteristics in spades. Beautifully aromatic, with crème de cassis, blueberry, and black raspberry fruit intertwined with complex notions of mature tobacco, anise, wet earth, and cedar chest the 2016 is a masterpiece that deserves its #1 Wine of the Year status. 

Operated by the Bartons—one of just three families in Bordeaux that have continuously owned their estate since the 1855 classification—Château Léoville Barton is the quintessential Saint-Julien. The 2016 is a perfect snapshot of the terroir and the season: it's taut and firm, beautifully perfumed, and elegant on the finish, but still muscular. Hailing from historic Second Growth grounds, the 2016 shows off sculpted, cedar-tinged nobility with every sip. 

Backed by ten generations of knowledge and vinicultural savoir-faire—three still working today—this has a primordial, old-school foundation supported by rich, plinth-like tannins that will continue to grow in majesty for decades. Rich, full notes of black raspberry, plum, and blackberry stream through a cedar chest structure, filigreed with tobacco, pencil shavings, and licorice. And it’s still a baby that will really hit its prime in 2025. 

“Both regal and rambunctious” writes Wine Spectator in its 97-point review of the 2019 Top 100 champion—a score matched by James Suckling in his rave endorsement. “It’s going to be incredibly long-lived,” predicts Jeb Dunnuck in his 96+ paean, while Vinous declares: “This is one of the finest wines from the estate in recent years.”

Thomas Barton first settled in Bordeaux in 1725, coming from Ireland; you can trace his lineage down through the centuries to the descendants currently managing Château Léoville Barton estate: the octogenarian Anthony, his daughter Lilian, who is in her 60s, and her children Mélanie and Damien, both in their 30s.

The youngest generation’s task, as they explain it, is to uphold the legacy that’s been handed down to them—never changing merely to suit modern tastes, but only to improve. That’s what has made the integrity and consistency of Léoville Barton something you can set your watch to, leading Wine Spectator to argue: “Château Léoville Barton…epitomizes the best of classic Bordeaux: character, elegance and ageability.”

The estate is set on 119 acres in the northern portion of the appellation, where higher elevations and a southern orientation of the hillside vineyards infuses grapes with a dense black fruit profile, shot through with savory and mineral elements. 2016 was the definitive Left Bank vintage of recent years, with its wet winter and bone-dry summer and fall creating tiny berries of incredible concentration, and giving the advantage to late-ripening Cabernet. 

For Wine Spectator’s best bottle of the year, this is a steal, destined for greatness in the lucky cellars where it lands.