93
Jeb Dunnuck Tasting Note
Ripe black fruits, iron, sappy herbs, green tobacco, and a distinct bloody character all emerge from the 2000 Château Léoville Barton, a blend of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc aged 18 months in 60% new French oak. It's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with integrated acidity and a tight, concentrated mouthfeel that suggests this is either not the best bottle or simply very closed and unevolved. Keep bottles for another 4-5 years if you have them, as it has the density and concentration to keep for another 20-30 years. Drink 2030-2056.
96
Wine Spectator Tasting Note
Hello. Take textbook St.-Julien warmed fig, blueberry compote and blackberry reduction notes along with ample graphite, bramble and tobacco flavors, then dial it up a notch. This has terrific energy to offset the admirable depth and length, and hasn't even started a second phase yet. One of the stars of the vintage. -- Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Best from 2018 through 2033. 20,000 cases made.
90
Vinous Tasting Note
The 2000 Léoville-Barton has a juicy, ripe bouquet of macerated black cherries, incense, potpourri and veins of blue fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, good density, nice structure and a sappy conclusion. This has opened up in recent years and displays a touch of ash toward the finish. Drinking perfectly now, it’s a decent Léoville-Barton that never quite achieves the heights of recent stellar vintages.
96
James Suckling Tasting Note
Decadent aromas of strawberry tart, earth, meat, spices, that gives way to flowers and currants. Full and very soft, with refined tannins with a very long finish. This is just starting to open up right now, a real beauty. Soft and delicious with a great future. This will be better in 5 years, but you can enjoy this now. Pull the cork in 2015.
96
Wine Advocate Tasting Note
Absolutely spectacular from bottle, but frightfully closed and backward, with massive power and structure, the saturated purple-colored 2000 Leoville Barton is one of the greatest wines ever made at this estate. The wine has smoky, earthy notes intermixed with graphite, camphor, damp earth, jammy cassis, cedar, and a hint of mushroom. Enormous, even monstrous in the mouth, with tremendous extraction, broodingly backward, dense flavors, and copious tannins, this should prove to be one of the longest-lived wines of the vintage and one of the most compelling Leoville Bartons ever made. However, anyone unable to defer gratification for at least a decade should steer clear of this behemoth. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2040.