St Julien has produced a number of sensational wines in 2009. The best have tremendous power, richness and wonderfully ripe tannin. All three Léovilles are terrific, though very, very different. Château Léoville-Las-Cases is a giant with tremendous depth and power. Château Léoville Poyferré feels genuinely perfect. It is already spellbindingly seductive. Château Léoville Barton has great purity and depth. It is incredibly fresh and very long. It needs a decade in the cellar for sure but it remains at a bargain price compared to the others.

Hervé Berland, Château Montrose’s new managing director, is rightly proud of the wine here in 2012. Alongside Mouton and Léoville-Las-Cases this is one of the most powerful wines of the Médoc. It was also amongst the very last picked, a risky business enabled only by the terroir of Montrose. The soils here, gravel with a clay base, were sufficiently well draining for the rain that arrived at vintage time, but water retentive enough to resist the very dry period between August and late September. This dry period created fruit with especially thick skins, helping the grapes [Cabernet especially] resist the threat of botrytis that accompanied the late October wet weather. It was this that let Montrose snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

I have to admit that I wasn’t exactly knocked over by the showing of the wines of St Julien in 2012 despite two detailed passes of the commune on separate days. Yes the best are correct enough and will make decent wine, but many don’t set the pulse racing, or offer the immediate charm of the best properties in the Margaux or Pessac-Léognan appellations or the potential of the even better wines on the right bank. Overall they feel a bit joyless, like the vintage rain has dampened their spirits. Unless they are released at prices less than available vintages now, few make sense as an en primeur purchase today.

Château Léoville-Las-Cases has triumphed in 2012. It borders Château Latour geographically and for me this northernmost St Julien is better than the Pauillac first growth this year. It is a great effort. In the glass there is no trace of the difficult vintage that produced this wine. Clos du Maquis looks very good too, lots of blackcurrant and cassis tones [it is 92% Cabernet] it has a solid structure but nicely ripe tannin. If the price is right this wine is really worth considering. Le Petit Lion du Marquis de Las Cases, the second wine of Las-Cases, is attractive and supple.