1990 Château Léoville Las Cases St. Julien Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note
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1990
Château Léoville Las Cases (St. Julien)
90 is the best vintage of LLC for current consumption. The nose is striking, with its blend of black currants. dark red fruits, spices, cigar wrappers, and a hint of mint. The palate is also up to the task delivering a big mouthful of lively, peppery, chewy, currants in a refined mode that provides true staying power. Drink from 2024-2055. 2,397 Views Tasted Nov 28, 2024The 90 Leoville Las Cases is what great Bordeaux is all about. The wine is full-bodied, rich, deep and intense. Power with elegance, refined and fresh the tannins are perfectly ripe, backing up all the equally perfectly ripe, dark red currants, cigar box, tobacco leaf, cedar, forest leaf and spice. The wine fills your palate and sticks with you in the finish. It took 32 years to get here and will offer fabulous drinking for at least the next two decades with ease. 5,396 Views Tasted Jan 12, 2022At 31 years of age, this is First Growth in quality. This majestic Left Banker offers up tobacco leaf, cigar box, cedar, forest floor, cassis and blackberry aromas. Concentrated, full-bodied and with an incredible sense of richness, depth of flavor and structure, the wine fills your palate with layers of perfectly ripe, earthy red fruits. At the most, 60 minutes in the decanter is all that's needed. 5,927 Views Tasted May 30, 2021What a fabulous, maturing wine this continues to be. Full-bodied, intense, classic in all the best ways, with a boatload of black currants, cigar box, smoke, tobacco ash, rocks, forest floor, cedar and old wood, this smells great. On the palate, the wine really takes off. Layers of ripe, sweet, delicious fruits with present, but ripe tannins, a good backbone and the ability to age for at least another 3 decades or more. 5,194 Views Tasted Aug 24, 2020This is what great, classic Bordeaux is all about! Perfectly balanced between regal and stern, the tannins are refined, the fruit is ripe and pure. Full-bodied, intense, concentrated and complex, every sniff and sip is interesting, making you want to delve deeper to the glass to find out what else is in there. This is just starting to unfurl. Drink it now, and over the next 20-25 years if well-stored. 6,407 Views Tasted Feb 15, 2020Blown away by how good this wine is showing. Bought on release and stored in my nice cold cellar, it's been a few years since popping my last cork. Decanted 3 hours, this is a stunner. Powerful, concentrated and dense, the fruit is ripe, rich and deep. The wine really hits all the right spots and coats your palate, teeth and gums with flavor. There is freshness and layers of cassis, cigar box, tobacco and cedar. The tannins are powerful, but they are round, giving you structure and backbone, energy and length. The wine kept improving for another 3 hours. This is the vintage to buy, if you want to see what LLC offers with age. It's 27 years old, and this will be better in 5, 10 or may 20 more years. But it's a treat today, and well worth the cost for a wine at this level. 8,511 Views Tasted Aug 31, 2017We're talking fabulous aromas of Cuban tobacco interspersed with cassis, chocolate, Allspice and coffee in this Bordeaux. This wine is huge. Stunningly concentrated. Meaty but refined. Powerful, muscular and flawlessly sophisticated. Still tannic, but the tannins are very elegant. This is First Growth in quality! Still young, well stored bottles will easily last for 50 years! 9,135 Views Tasted Feb 11, 2013This is a perplexing wine. Some bottles are tight, holding its obvious charms in reserve. Other bottles are starting to open, becoming expressive. This particular bottle needed more time. Smoke, tobacco, cigar box, grave, cedar chest and cassis scents led to a full bodied, powerful, tannic wine that clearly has more to offer as it develops. 13,411 Views Tasted Jun 25, 2012Decanted for 90 minutes, the wine offered scents of tobacco, cassis, truffle, black cherry, smoke, menthol, stone and leather. Full bodied and concentrated with ripe, pure, refined, Cabernet Sauvignon, this is really starting to open up. The long, pure, velvet in an iron glove finish leaves a lasting impression. Most of the tannin has melted away. While the wine should continue to improve, there is no reason to delay popping a bottle if you have more than a few in your cellar. I've tasted this wine a lot over the years. Some bottles have displayed a longer, deeper finish. This was a good, but probably not a perfect bottle. Such is life. I'm looking forward to the next one. 14,886 Views Tasted Nov 19, 20111990 Leoville Las Cases makes itself known with aromatics of Asian spice, earth, fresh blackberry, caramel, cigar box, tobacco and cassis. This powerful, full bodied, rich, intense wine is polished, sophisticated and intense. It fills your mouth with strong, ripe tannins and round textures. The long, pure, concentrated finish could be mistaken for a top First Growth from a great year. Still young, this can be enjoyed today, but it’s only going to get better with time. This is probably my favorite vintage of Leovlle Las Cases at the moment. 14,227 Views Tasted Nov 3, 2010With its olive, cassis, cedar and black fruit nose, smells young. The fruit is polished, ripe and pure. There is good intensity and purity to the flavor and the finish is polished 9,390 Views Tasted Jun 30, 2009Smoky cassis, cigar ash, truffles, soil, licorice and a mélange of spice are all easy to find. Powerful, yet not demanding, this intense, regal, Cabernet wine is still tannin. But the ripeness of the tannins offers great textures. This structured, full-bodied wine ends with a juicy mouthful of ripe, dark berries, cassis, fennel and earthy flavors. Still young, this has 20-30 more years of life to enjoy. 9,429 Views Tasted Jun 28, 2009Huge, massive wine features complex aromas of cassis, wet earth and black fruit. Huge, dense, plush mouth feel makes a seemingly endless finish. Perfect balance. This remains amazingly youthful. 8,951 Views Tasted Jun 15, 2005 |

When to Drink Chateau Leoville Las Cases, Anticipated Maturity, Decanting Time
Chateau Leoville Las Cases is not a wine to drink on the young side. The wine is usually far too tannic, powerful, and reserved during its youth. Young vintages can be decanted for an average of 3-6 hours, give or take.
This allows the wine to soften and open its perfume. Older vintages might need very little decanting, just enough to remove the sediment.
Chateau Leoville Las Cases is usually better with at least 15 years of bottle age. Of course, that can vary slightly, depending on the vintage character. Chateau Latour offers its best drinking and should reach peak maturity between 20-50 years of age after the vintage.
Serving Chateau Leoville Las Cases with Wine, Food, Pairing Tips
Leoville Las Cases is best served at 15.5 degrees Celsius, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The cool, almost cellar temperature gives the wine more freshness and lift.
Chateau Leoville Las Cases is best served with all types of classic meat dishes, veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game, roast chicken, roasted, braised, and grilled dishes. Chateau Leoville Las Cases is a perfect match with Asian dishes, hearty fish courses like tuna, mushrooms, and pasta as well as cheeses.