Andrew Jefford | Very deep purple-red: brooding and opaque. Fresh, clean, purposeful, and pungent, with an alluring mix of blackcurrant and plum, with some spice and leafy freshness; some red flowers, too. An aromatically articulate Léoville Barton. On the palate, it isn’t quite as chunky as Langoa Barton and the tannins are a little softer and more delicate; the fruit qualities, by contrast, are more poised and fine-grained, and the wine is every bit as long and even more classical, without those faintly sour notes to the fruit which you can see in the Langoa. A very assured, clean, long-driving wine. | 92

Michael Schuster | Dense, closed, gravel-imbued nose; concentrated, medium- to full-bodied wine, fresh in acidity, very firm in tannin; typically compact, long-term Léoville B, with an abundance of flavor, long and close-knit to taste, aromatic, complex, and very long to finish. A typically firm-textured expression, needing at least decade and a half more to begin to yield; a most complete long-term second growth, to broach at two decades, I would think. 2036–56+. | 94