1986 Collection Cepages de Château Léoville Las Cases, Six-Bottle Assortment Case

Harvested from 1 to 17 October. 4% Petit Verdot completes the blend.

Michel Delon, then owner, believed this to be the greatest wine he had ever made. It's not often the case that wines with this much expectation riding on them live up to the hype, but this one did. A stunning wine that, at 33 years old, still feels fresh, concentrated and with a long way left to go. The tannins have the characteristic Las Cases weight and definition, giving form and shape to the sweet berry fruit, but the overall impression is of welcoming juicy pleasure.

Drink 2019 - 2035

The late Michel Delon always thought this was the greatest vintage he had produced. We often tasted it side by side with the 1982, because I always preferred the latter vintage. Of course, the two vintages are pretty different in style, with the 1986 a monument to classicism, with great tannin, extraordinary delineation, and a huge, full-bodied nose of sweet, ripe cassis fruit intermixed with vanilla, melon, fruitcake, and a multitude of spices. 

The wine has always been phenomenally concentrated yet wonderfully fresh and vigorous. The wine still seems young, yet it is hard to believe it is not close to full maturity. It is an excellent example of Leoville Las Cases, and another compelling reason to take a serious look at the top Cabernet Sauvignon-based Medocs of 1986.

Drink 2003 - 2035

The 1986 Leoville-Las Cases is still so youthful in appearance after 30 years, with only a thin bricking on the rim giving away its age. The bouquet is magnificent: extraordinarily pure and delineated, bewitching black fruit laced with cedar and graphite, the latter lending an almost Pauillac-like personality. The palate is exactly as I have found the last dozen or so bottles I have tasted: structured, delineated, intense, aristocratic and imperious. It is less formidable than ten years ago, so it has probably just stepped onto its drinking plateau. 

The acidity is perfectly judged, lending freshness and tension, crucial to counterbalance those layers of spicy black fruit that fan out with cedar and graphite again) towards the finish. You come away with the feeling of having consumed wine with immense energy, yet with so much more to give over the next three decades, and knowing this property, perhaps even the three decades after that! I would agree with the late Michel Delon: the 1986 Léoville Las-Cases is the summit of the 1980s.

Drink 2016 - 2060