1985 Chateau Leoville Barton, Saint-Julien, Bottle (750ml) [Top Shoulder]

DR96 "This wine is just as I recall it being every time I've encountered it in the last 20 years. The nose has a wonderful concentration and still has notes of violets and black fruits. Straight out of the bottle it is initially quite tight yet with great focus, and after an hour or two in a decanter the palate is streamlined and long with super-fine, fully resolved tannins. This is one of the great Bordeaux classics that will still improve in bottle." GB for DR Feb 2025

RP95 "My favorite vintage from this château to drink today is the superb 1985 Léoville Barton, a sumptuous, demonstrative wine that bursts with aromas of cedary currant fruit, plums, loamy soil and cigar wrapper. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and charming, with an enveloping core of fruit, melting tannins, ripe acids and a long, expansive finish, it's at its peak today but in no danger of imminent decline." WK for TWA Feb 2022

NM95 "This Leoville Barton is on blistering form. An absolutely stunning nose even when compared next to Las-Cases 1985 with an almost Right Bank lusciousness and voluptuousness about it. Ripe red-berried fruits, cherries, just a faint hint of toffee apple and hot bricks. The palate is beautifully controlled, exquisitely balanced and blessed with effortless harmony. I have a feeling this is the best Leoville Barton 1985 that I will ever taste. A point. Drink now. Tasted April 2007." NM for WJ 2007