Leoville las Cases 1976

Tasted blind in Bordeaux, I noticed that Robert Parker described the 1976 Leoville Las-Cases as “one of the more successful wines of the vintage,” and I concur. Certainly here it had the edge over the 1976 Ducru Beaucaillou. The bouquet is fragrant with cedar and black truffle-like scents, quite Pauillac in style and high-toned. There is a sweet core of fruit that betrays the vintage here, quite youthful and saline, a pleasant prickle of spice on the tongue that renders this an atypically “playful” Léoville Las-Cases. I noticed a little dryness towards the finish, but otherwise this is a perfectly respectable Saint Julien for the vintage. Tasted April 2016