Score: 95-97 RP

Region: Bordeaux

District: Saint Julien

Type: Still Wine

Color: Red

Varietal: Blends & Meritage

Vintage: 2008

Futures Item: Yes

Available: 6

Brand: See more from Chateau Leoville Las Cases

Sku: 105318

Price: $309.99

Quantity:   

Wine Spectator Review:
Wonderful nose of roses, violets, raspberries and black licorice. Full-bodied, with a solid core of ripe fruit and lots of beautiful wood. Excellent. Score range 91-94

Parker Review:
Readers should not be surprised that the 2008 Leoville Las Cases is a great classic as the selection process here is as Draconian as at any of the first-growths. Slightly more than one-third of the production made it into the grand vin, a blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Merlot. Yields were just under 38 hectoliters per hectare, and the natural alcohol of 13.4% is among the highest ever measured at this estate. The harvest was very late, between October 6-18, and the result is a wine boasting extraordinarily sweet tannin as well as abundant black cherry and cassis notes intermixed with a prominent underlying minerality. Despite the massive density, concentration, and length, the wine is extremely precise, nuanced, and impeccably pure. This phenomenal effort should be more drinkable in its youth than many other vintages of Las Cases because of the ripe tannins and sweet fruit density. It will need 5-10 years of cellaring, and should last for 40 years.

Tanzer Review:
Full, deep ruby-red. Beautiful nose redolent of violet, blackcurrant and minerals. Balanced and pure on entry, with almost sweet ripe red cherry and marzipan flavors, this is wonderfully suave and seamless, but with great purity and precision of flavor and terrific inner-palate perfume and lift. With a touch more length, it may well have been the wine of the vintage. 92-95.

Other Notes:
En primeur barrel sample. A blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc (a little higher than usual) with 10.3% pressed wine. Cropped at 37.9hl/ha and coming in at a respectable 13.4% alcohol, the harvest commencing on 6th October, this has a ravishing nose of cassis, black plum, violets and a touch of eucalyptus quite atypical for an 08. The palate is full-bodied with cashmere tannins on the entry, seductive, a little spicy, the back palate with almost a vanillary sweet finish. This is a lascivious Las-Cases that is nigh irresistible at this stage. Gorgeous - but how will it age? Tasted April 2009. Neal Martin, 92-94