Château Léoville Las Cases 1989

Very ripe, with raisin and dried fruits on the nose. You can smell the sun-dried grapes. Full-bodied, delivering firm tannins and a very fresh palate. Long and flavorful, offering currant, berries and all sorts of dark fruits, but turns lightly earthy and floral. This is a thoroughly complex wine. Just starting to really open into the mature 20-year-old wine it is, but such a great life ahead of it. Muscular. -- '89/'99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now.

1989 was an early year, with flowering three weeks ahead of usual. Now at 30 years old, a floral aspect curls out of the glass, with touches of roses and peonies, followed on the palate by bilberries and blackberries, with a cigar smoke and eucalyptus finish. It's still vigorous in its tannic structure, but it's soft and supple enough to enjoy today. This bottle was recorked by hand at the winery last year, with five people checking every single one of the 5,000 bottles remaining at the chateau. The wines were topped up from magnums of the 1989. 3% Petit Verdot completes the blend - a variety not used in the grand vin since 1996.

The 1989 Léoville Las-Cases came from a bottle that was recorked in 2017 at the property. The bouquet is rather muted, quite rustic and earthy in style, lacking the breeding that Jean-Hubert Delon instills nowadays. The palate is medium-bodied with soft tannins. Rustic red fruit mingles with iron ore, orange peel, game and bacon fat notes. Old-school in style but missing the backbone and tension, the precision synonymous with this estate. Overall, it is slightly underperforming in the context of the vintage. Tasted at the property and in London, both bottles ex-château.

Fully mature, medium-bodied wine, blending classic character with elegance and a touch of austerity. The wine shows cassis, sweet and tart cherry, cedar, tobacco, and a hint of green. The tannins have softened, making it fun to drink, but the short finish and lack of depth keep the score from going higher.

I thought the 1989 Château Leoville Las Cases showed brilliantly, with a classy, elegant, regal feel that's very much in the style of the estate. Certainly in its prime drink window, it has lots of pure cassis and darker fruits as well as graphite, scorched earth, tobacco, and hints of saddle leather. Medium-bodied on the palate, it's balanced, has a pure, layered mouthfeel, resolved tannins, and outstanding length. While it doesn't hit the same heights as the 1982, 2000, 2003, 2009, or more recent vintages, it's a classic example of this terroir that will continue to evolve gracefully for another two decades.

An estate with the natural power and freshness in the soils of Las Cases is always worth seeking out in hot vintages like 1989. This shows fleshy black fruits, spice, cigar box and rich seams of black truffle, fully mature, almost more so than the 1970 if you can believe it. Gentle tannins, mouthwatering, a wine that sits more within the finessed personality of St Julien than many Las Cases. 50% new oak, harvest September 5 to 25. Michel Delon the owner, 3rd generation of the family to do so, renowned for his exceptional cellar, who liked to swap cases of his own wine with Burgundian winemakers such as Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault. This bottle isn’t showing quite as well as the one I had last year (in fact we opened two bottles to find the best one), but it’s worth the gamble if you can track one down.