Château Léoville Barton La Réserve de Léoville Barton 2019, Saint-Julien, Bordeaux

La Réserve de Léoville Barton is the second wine of Château Léoville Barton, the Saint-Julien Second Growth owned by the Barton family since 1826, whose wine business began when Thomas Barton left Ireland for Bordeaux in 1722. It is made from younger vines and from plots not selected for the grand vin, grown on gravel slopes facing the Gironde. The grapes are picked by hand, fermented plot by plot in temperature-controlled wooden vats and aged for 16 to 18 months in French oak barrels. The blend is Cabernet Sauvignon-led, with Merlot and a little Cabernet Franc.

La Réserve de Léoville Barton is a rich, classic Saint-Julien. The nose shows blackcurrant, blackberry and plum with cedar, cigar box and a touch of spice. The palate is full bodied yet balanced, with ripe, firm tannins and a long, savoury finish.

Serve it with roast rib of beef, lamb shank, venison or a hearty cassoulet. Serve at 16–18°C and decant if young. It is more approachable than the grand vin, drinking well from three to four years after the vintage and keeping for 10–15 years.

Château Léoville Barton in Saint-Julien has one of Bordeaux’s strongest Irish connections. In 1722 Thomas Barton left Ireland for Bordeaux and founded a wine merchant business, and in 1826 his grandson Hugh Barton bought 50 hectares of vineyard in Saint-Julien. The estate was ranked a Second Growth (2ème Cru Classé) in the 1855 Classification and has stayed in the same family ever since, making it one of the longest family ownerships in the Médoc. Anthony Barton built its international reputation, and today his daughter Lilian and her children run the estate. The vines grow on Garonne gravel slopes facing the Gironde, ploughed traditionally without herbicides, and the wines are classic, long-lived Saint-Julien.