2003 Château Léoville Barton

Community Tasting Note

wrote:

85 Points

Monday, July 6, 2015 - I like it because I can drink it, but I hate it because I have been cellaring this freaking punk-a** bottle for a decade and just now realized this is the same stupid kind of bor-dough plonk I've been wasting my time on all along. How did James Suckling rate this a NINETY-EIGHT in 2006 and then change that to a 92 (NINETY-TWO!!!!!) in 2011?!? It's not even a 92 in my book. This is drinkable but it has the same ol stupid bor-dough funk in the nose, insipid ash-tray mouth muddled with some blackberries, followed by more ash tray in the mouth. Oh man, I am angry. I am so glad I stopped buying any bor-dough wines about 5 years ago. I know, not all of them SUCK, just most. Yikes. What an utter disappointment. I am going to sell off every single bottle of bor-dough in my cellar. Left-bank, Right-bank, and all the other banks. Oh, that's what it is! They are all used to going to the "bank" after I buy their wines en primeur! Well, maybe in some future century when bor-dough catches up to Napa in the making of fine wines I will entertain a purchase or two. Pretty sure I'll be dead by then.

Bye bye and good riddance bor-dough!

Sincerely,

Troy Peterson

(Epilogue: This is only a rant about RED bor-dough, not white/sweet ones. And this was no PnP willy nilly tasting, it was a full-on decant with tastings every hour for several hours and at a consistent temperature. And yes, I am still waiting to taste Petrus, any vintage!)

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8 comments have been posted

  • Comment posted by cos82:

    7/6/2015 4:05:00 PM - Bravo, I thought it was just me who preferred fruit in their wines. Sad, because Barton is one of my favorites, but too many Bordeaux wines lack fruit. Every once in a while a spectacular wine, but lacking the fruit I usually find in CA NAPA wines.

  • Comment posted by Timbalimba:

    7/7/2015 5:18:00 AM - Love your TN. I may not agree with you on Bordeaux, but I love your TN, man. Straight from the hip.

  • Comment posted by RockinCabs:

    7/7/2015 7:01:00 AM - Troy, I love the brutality and I am sure you are well aware of how widely this wine is owned. This is in large part due to the suckling 98 that was put on the board upon release.

    I must admit that having popped a bottle of this when it was just a screaming newborn this was a really nice wine. Subsequent tastes did not live up to early expectations, but in a hot vintage across the pond you just don't know how the wines are going to hold up.

    Clearly your palate is not adjusted to what the bordelaise offer, and the market needs more consumers like you to throw the wines out to auction and let prices re-adjust to some semblance of reality. For drinkers like me Bordeaux can be a love hate relationship, but when a wine delivers big I am head over heels for it all over again.

  • Comment posted by Jeffrey Silver:

    7/7/2015 7:46:00 AM - Troy,
    TY for your very honest TN. 2003 Léoville Barton is a baby. If anybody just "pops and pours" it. Then they are making a mistake. Not sure why so many do that? This wine needs 3hrs of decanting and then you can see it true potential. It will age effortlessly for another 10yrs. It is truly an infant today. It's not a perfect example of great Bordeaux but will provide truly drinking pleasure. My score 94.

  • Comment posted by jamie24:

    7/11/2015 1:49:00 AM - Most red Bordeaux wines suck? Interesting viewpoint! I can only assume it's something to do with the difference between European and American palates.

  • Comment posted by Jeffrey Silver:

    7/11/2015 6:00:00 AM - To each his own. My cellar is 85% Bordeaux & Burgundy. It's what I love. So I guess I have European pallet but there is lots of Americans who love Bordeaux. So your not one of them and that ok.

  • Comment posted by SLIMES:

    7/21/2015 9:18:00 AM - I think Jamie24 makes a good point. Palates do vary around the world. In the UK we avoid paring tannic or oaky wines with spicy food as it can just make the dish taste even hotter. In China however, this effect is apparently sought by most drinkers. My own experience that was similar to this was trying steak in Texas (which I found to be completely tasteless) and then learning that Americans usually seek tenderness in their meat rather than flavour.

    I do hope however that while we acknowledge these regional/continental variations, that wine writers don't overgeneralise. I'd hate to see Sommeliers making recommendations based on nationality.

  • Comment posted by robertdtwo:

    10/11/2015 4:22:00 PM - I understand your frustration with the Bordeaux growing region; I have HUGE issues with them, but for vastly different reasons. I still enjoy a good portion of their output, but I refuse to join in the bidding war for Parkerrific ratings of solid, but not stellar, bottlings.
    I have shifted my gaze towards Italy (chiefly BdM) and Napa (especially Howell Mountain), and have found that I'm really not missing France and its self-appointed grandiosity as much as I thought I would.

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