1996 Chateau Leoville Las Cases Saint Julien Grand Cru Classe Bordeaux 750 ml

When Robert Parker first tasted the 1996 Leoville Las Cases a year after bottling, the normally verbose critic said: “Even I have a hard time finding the words to describe wines of this quality.”

By 1998, he’d found one: “Wow.” He repeated it three times in his review, before proceeding to call the wine “a modern day legend in the making.”

Nearly a quarter-century later, this wine has cemented its legendary status. Bordeaux authority Jane Anson gave the wine a perfect score, and Parker’s Wine Advocate scored it higher than the 1996s from Châteaux Mouton, Haut-Brion, and Latour.

Rivaling the First Growths isn’t a fluke for Léoville Las Cases. It’s a habit. Wine Spectator once mused that if one Bordeaux estate could get a promotion, most connoisseurs would choose Las Cases. This 1996 shows why.

The estate’s wines are renowned for their longevity, and this one is hitting its stride like Usain Bolt on the straightaway—with spectacular poise and confidence. It’s impeccably structured and seamless, bringing weight on the palate and intricate notes of ​​dried flowers, tobacco, and spice that cling to a spine of acidity and refined tannins.

Léoville Las Cases sits in northern Saint-Julien, separated from Pauillac—and Château Latour—by a tiny stream. As a result, the wines combine the classic power of Pauillac with Saint-Julien’s trademark austerity, producing a wine that’s as classic as they come on the Left Bank.

The winery vinifies using giant wood casks, which gently micro-oxygenate the wine during fermentation. This process refines the wine’s tannins, incorporating them into a graceful but stout structure that allows the wine to age beautifully for decades. Look no further for proof.