Btls

Avail.

Btl

Size

Wine
Where available, tasting scores and notes are by Robert Parker (RP) and taken from his website www.erobertparker.com  or Stephen Tanzer (ST) from www.wineaccess.com

Year

Price per
Bottle
including
VAT

Tasting
Score/Notes
Best Drinking

BEYCHEVELLE
St. Julien
RP - Beychevelle is on the rebound as evidenced by what they have accomplished over recent years. A good example of this chateau, the elegant, finesse-styled 2004 exhibits black cherry and cassis fruit interwoven with loamy soil, dried herb, and spicy oak notes. Medium-bodied, elegant, finely tuned, and finesse-styled, it is not short on flavour or depth.

BEYCHEVELLE
St. Julien
RP - A beauty in an up-front, supple, sexy style is the generous and savoury, dark ruby /plum-coloured 2003 Beychevelle. Medium to full-bodied with loads of fruit and glycerine, it is much more approachable than usual, but also generously proportioned and exceptionally well-balanced.

BRANAIRE-DUCRU
St. Julien
RP - As usual, the 2005 Branaire-Ducru is one of the more distinctive wines of St.-Julien. Proprietor Patrick Maroteaux has turned out another classic. While not as opulent or fleshy as the 2003, and it remains to be seen if it will eclipse the 2000, the 2005 is a big, structured, intensely rich effort with raspberry, blueberry, and spring flower garden characteristics, stunning purity, full-bodied power, and good underlying acidity as well as harmony.

BRANAIRE-DUCRU
St. Julien
RP - Proprietor Patrick Maroteaux, president of Unions des Grands Crus Classes, is pulling out all the stops to make Branaire as alluring as several of the Leovilles and Ducru Beaucaillou.
2003 and 2004 may be the finest back-to-back vintages ever produced at Branaire. Even better than the 1982, the profound 2003 Branaire Ducru boasts a saturated plum/purple colour as well as an extraordinarily complex nose of black currants, blackberries, espresso roast, white chocolate, minerals, and truffles. It displays amazing freshness and definition for such a complex, complete, and full-bodied wine.

CLOS DU MARQUIS
St Julien
2nd Wine of Chateau Leoville Las Cases
The top wine currently sells for approx. £235 a bottle!, so surely this wine must be to 'good to be true'!

RP - The superb second wine, the 2005 Clos du Marquis, reflects the utter brilliance of the 2005 grand vin. It boasts an inky/ruby/purple colour along with a sweet perfume of lead pencil, ripe cherries and black currants, and hints of earth and vanillin. Dense, chewy, fleshy, and full-bodied, this beauty will be drinkable in 3-4 years, and should keep for 15-20.

CLOS DU MARQUIS
St Julien
2nd Wine of Chateau Leoville Las Cases
The top wine currently sells for approx. £145 a bottle!, so this says something for the potential of this wine.

RP - The 2003 Clos du Marquis possesses higher alcohol (13.4%) than the 2003 grand vin, no doubt because of the higher percentage of Merlot in the final blend. This impressive sleeper of the vintage boasts a deep ruby/purple colour as well as abundant amounts of fleshy, black cherry and currant fruit interwoven with mocha, vanillin, and spice box. Pure, layered, upfront, and already delicious, it should be drunk over the next 12-15 years.

DUCRU BEAUCAILLOU
St. Julien
RP - One can’t say enough about the efforts Bruno Borie is pouring into this wonderful estate that I have often called the “Lafite Rothschild of St.-Julien.”
An undeniable success, the 2004 Ducru boasts sweet aromas of crème de cassis, spring flowers, pain grille, liquorice, and road tar. This pure, medium-bodied wine possesses moderately high tannin, superb concentration, good sweetness, and low acidity.

DUCRU BEAUCAILLOU
St. Julien
RP - One of the most compelling Ducru Beaucaillou’s made in the last quarter century is the 2003 (which is also the first vintage to be packaged in an impressive heavy glass bottle with a special long cork). A blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot, it is a powerful, tannic, blockbuster effort revealing a liqueur of mineral-like component intermixed with crème de cassis, raspberry, and flower characteristics, and an atypically high 13.5% alcohol. Having firmed up considerably since bottling, it exhibits tremendous definition, weight, and concentration. It is a wine for patient connoisseurs.

DUCRU BEAUCAILLOU
St. Julien
RP - Floral notes intermixed with raspberries, black currants, minerals, and a hint of new oak emerge from the dense purple-coloured 2000 Ducru-Beaucaillou. The wine is sweet, dense, and medium to full-bodied, with undeniable elegance and finesse as well as a finish that lasts for 45+ seconds.
A wine of remarkable symmetry, balance, elegance, and minerality, it is the Lafite-Rothschild of St.-Julien.

GRUAUD LAROSE
St. Julien
Wine Spectator -  Aromas of blackberry, meat and earth follow through to a full body, with velvety tannins and a rich finish. Decadent, balanced and very approachable already.

GRUAUD LAROSE
St. Julien
Wine Spectator - Aromas of blackberry, toasted oak, sweet tobacco and espresso. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a long, fruity finish. I like the texture.

GRUAUD LAROSE
St. Julien
RP - This saturated bluish-black/purple-coloured wine seems at first closed and broodingly backward. In the mouth, it is dense, textured, full-bodied, pure, yet, at the same time, closed. This wine is large-sized, with high tannin but equally high extract and richness. The wine will require patience, and seems to me to be the best effort Gruaud Larose has put forth since their sumptuous 1990.

GRUAUD LAROSE
St. Julien
RP - Gruaud-Larose has fashioned an elegant, less rustic wine than previous vintages. The colour is a healthy dark ruby/purple. The bouquet offers aromas of plums, black raspberries, and cassis. Stylish, with medium to full body, sweet tannin, and excellent purity as well as overall symmetry.

LA RESERVE de LEOVILLE BARTON
St Julien
2nd Wine of Chateau Leoville Barton
The top wine currently sells for approx. £76 a bottle!, so this says something for the potential of this wine.

Jane MacQuitty - "The 2000 vintage of the renowned and fairly priced St Julien second growth Leoville Barton was one of the stars of the year, so I was not surprised to unwrap this claret and find it was the star red in this price bracket. This magnificent, cabernet-sauvignon based claret, complete with ripe seductive, blackberry-scented style, is a dream. Miss this and you will miss out."  - The Times Magazine, 11/06/05

LEOVILLE BARTON
St. Julien
RP - This is an impressively endowed vin de garde that should age effortlessly for 20-30 years. How Anthony Barton continues to fashion uncompromisingly primordial Bordeaux that are always among the biggest and densest of all the St.-Juliens is beyond me, but he does it year in and year out. Moreover, when it’s time to set the price, he appears to have the consumer foremost in his mind. The 2004 is a classic Leoville-Barton meant for long aging. Concentrated, with loads of smoke, crème de cassis, forest floor, and earthy notes emerge from this impressive, but oh, so backward wine.

LEOVILLE BARTON
St. Julien
RP - Consistent from bottle (I tasted it three times), this is an outstanding offering, although not quite at the prodigious level of the 2000. Civilized and approachable for a young Leoville-Barton, it exhibits a saturated plum/purple colour along with classic Bordelaise aromas of damp earth, crème de cassis, smoke, vanillin, and tobacco. Medium to full-bodied and rich, with high but well-integrated tannin, and a long, 40+ second finish, it should turn out to be a brilliant effort, and one of the stars of the Medoc.

LEOVILLE Las CASES
St. Julien
RP - Performing better from bottle than it did from cask, this blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, and 11% Cabernet Franc has put on weight over the last year. It exhibits the classic style of both Las Cases and St.-Julien in its deep black currant notes interwoven with sweet cherries, wet stones, and toasty vanillin. Made in a structured, medium to full-bodied style with superb concentration, beautiful purity, and admirable symmetry, this beauty is one of the strongest efforts of the vintage.

LEOVILLE POYFERRE
St. Julien
RP - While perhaps not up to the standards of the extraordinary 2003, the 2005 is still a strong effort from an estate that has been doing everything right over the last two decades. Sweet toasty oak intermixed with jammy black currant, plum, and liquorice aromas jump from the glass of this dense purple-hued wine. In the mouth, there is great fruit, tannin, body, structure, and delineation. This impressively endowed, well made St.-Julien.

LEOVILLE POYFERRE
St. Julien
RP - Compared to the blockbuster 2003, the 2004 is a more streamlined, elegant effort without the power, glycerine, and thickness of its older sibling. Nevertheless, it is an impressive St.-Julien offering a deep ruby/purple colour as well as a sweet bouquet of smoky cassis and cherries, medium body, and admirable concentration, purity, nobleness, and elegance.