2008 Château Léoville Barton, St Julien, Bordeaux

A fresh, elegant, incredibly classic wine from this estate, the 2008 Léoville Barton shows the concentrated yet focused, masculine style of the vintage. Ample graphite, cassis, violets, and cedarwood notes all flow to a medium-bodied Saint-Julien that has good acidity, present tannins, and terrific purity of fruit. It offers pleasure today, in a firm, classical sense, yet needs another 4-5 years of bottle age to hit maturity and will cruise for another 25+ years.Drink 2023 - 2048jeb_dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (February 2019)

The 2008 Léoville Barton has a lovely, heart-warming bouquet of ripe blackberry and cedar, touches of graphite, precise and supremely well-focused. Classic Barton. The palate is medium-bodied, fresh and lively with impressive density; it is structured with a firm backbone on the graphite-tinged and tensile finish that suggests that it deserves another 3-4 years in bottle. Excellent.There was no easing into the job, and frankly, I would not want it any other way on my first day. Wines tasted in the morning at an annual ten-year on Bordeaux tasting on one side of the Atlantic, written up on the flight over to New York with my mouth still coated in tannin and completed on the other side of the Atlantic...just a day in the life, so that readers get an idea how things are going to roll with the 2008 Bordeaux.Drink 2022 - 2045Neil Martin, Vinous.com.com (February 2018)

Bright ruby. Sexy, ripe nose combines cassis, Cuban cigar tobacco, licorice and minerals. Sweet, tactile and intense, with concentrated, sharply delineated flavours of dark fruits and minerals. Densely packed, ripe and deep. Offers a lovely combination of silky texture, firm structure and the aromatic lift and nuance of the vintage's best examples. Should age gracefully for at least 15 years.Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com.com (July 2011)

This was always one of the wines of the vintage with currant, cassis and chocolate aromas and flavors. Full body, chewy and polished tannins and a fresh and fine finish. Tight now but so beautiful. Decant a couple of hours before serving.james_suckling, jamessuckling_com (June 2016)

Typically extracted and powerful (which is atypical in a vintage such as 2008), this offering may lack charm, but it is locked and loaded with plenty of background oak, huge black cherry and black currant fruit, medium to full body and a boatload of tannin. Forget it for 8-10 years and drink it over the following three decades.Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 02/05/2011

Purplish with a lightish rim. Quite integrated nose. Well balanced. Some savour though no great intensity. Very fine tannins and good balance even if not a very firm imprint of personality. Marked tannins on the finish without a great weight of exciting fruit. jancis_robinson_mw - JancisRobinson.com - Apr-2009

Black-red, very good concentration of autumnal black fruits nose, impressively structured fruit, plummy ripeness on the attack, classic firmness on the finish, very good depth and persistence, powerful yet restrained. Drink 2018-30.

Roses, blackberries, currants and wet earth. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and very pretty fruit. Long and juicy. A delicious wine, very balanced. james_suckling- Wine Spectator - Apr-2009)

Cherries, graphite, oak spice, bitter chocolate and cedar. All the classic Bordeaux boxes ticked, and there's plenty of heft in the structure. Should age admirably. Drink 2018 - 2038richard_hemming_mw, JancisRobinson.com (February 2018)

Another blockbuster, long-term wine from proprietor Anthony Barton, this 2008 is among the vintage's biggest, most back-strapping efforts. As with many vintages of Leoville Barton, it is best forgotten for another decade. An inky/purple colour is followed by notes of forest floor, camphor, red and black fruits, and a hint of wood. This brawny, masculine-styled St. Julien possesses a huge body, massive concentration, and mouth-searing tannin levels. However, the tannins are much sweeter than the 2005's were at the same stage, so that should be fine as long as potential purchasers exercise patience. This impressively pure, classic Bordeaux should be at its finest between 2020 - 2050.Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (April 2009)

This is an excellent St-Julien with a brisk attack and a rather lovely restrained, savoury edge to the tightly structured black fruits. It has great texture, and a silkier flesh to the fruit, which has depth and persistence. Fully ripe but not tiptoeing a single centimetre over the line - nor under it, unlike a few in this vintage. A good job.Drink 2018 - 2035jane_anson_mw, Decanter.com (January 2018)