Skip to main content

Leoville versus Langoa

By January 27, 2009Critic Reviews

LBmillisemes 

The 'Bartons of St Julien' – Langoa and Leoville – are widely viewed as two of the most consistent (and consistently well priced) of all the classed growth Left Bank chateaux.

The properties have been in the Barton family's hands for more than 180 years – the longest period of single-family ownership in Bordeaux. Langoa Barton, the smaller of the two estates at 15 hectares, was bought by the family in 1821. The 47 hectares of Leoville Barton were added five years later, as part of the break up of the grand estate of Leoville – which once also comprised the land now occupied by fellow St Julien 2nd Growths Leoville Las Cases and Leoville Poyferre.

Interestingly, both Bartons are made at Langoa – indeed, the building pictured on the front of a bottle of Leoville (shown above) is actually the Chateau Langoa Barton.

Leoville historically attracts a higher prices than its smaller sibling and is generally felt to be the 'bigger', more robust wine. Perhaps most importantly, it was declared a 2nd Growth in the 1855 classification whereas Barton was ranked as a 3rd.

Both wines received a boost last week when Neal Martin awarded them 93 points in a large retrospective of the 2004 vintage. This is the same score he gave to Lafite Rothschild, and not far off the scores awarded to the very top wines of the vintage: Margaux, Palmer and Haut Brion (all 95 points).

Martin also made some interesting comments on the respective quality of the two estates:

"You know, the common consensus is that Léoville Barton is by rote, superior to Langoa, but the more my experience grows the less I think that is valid…  I have become more and more convinced that Langoa is just as good, occasionally even better than its sibling. I cannot think of any [other] Left Bank wine that not only represents great value but comes with such a propensity to age so gracefully."

We thought it would be interesting to see if Martin's thoughts are shared by the other major critics. Below we list the scores for both chateaux from the 2000 vintage onwards, along with the Liv-ex Best List Price (the lowest merchant list price received by Liv-ex within the last 30 days).

LBvLB1

LBvLB2

(sources: NM & RP both erobertparker.com / JR: jancisrobinson.com / JS: winespectator.com / BLP: Liv-ex.com)

It is clear that the only critic to consistently rate Leoville Barton significantly higher in every vintage is Robert Parker. James Suckling appears to favour Leoville in the hotter vintages only (2000, 2003 and 2005), whereas both Robinson and Martin score the the properties more or less evenly. Nevertheless, Langoa remains significantly cheaper, particularly in the most sought after vintages. The 2004 vintage of Langoa Barton – described by Martin as "masculine, beautifully balanced…a wonderful Saint Julien" – is perhaps the most attractively priced of the lot at just £225 a case. Both properties, however, can be seen to deliver strong value across the board.

You can compare prices for the vintages from the 80s and 90s by subscribing to a Liv-ex Cellar Watch package.