Château Léoville Barton

The terroir at Léoville Barton is composed of one of the most beautiful outcrops of Garonne gravel, facing the Gironde, in the heart of the Saint Julien appellation, 40 kms north of Bordeaux in the Médoc region. The terroir at Léoville Barton is characterised by its gravel of varying heights which was left by the river over the centuries. Combined with the influence of the men who have nurtured the soils over the years, the terroir is what makes these red wines amongst the most famous in the world. The gravelly clay subsoil helps to regulate the climatic variations of the vintage.

Léoville Barton already belonged to the Barton family when it was classified as a 2nd Grand Cru Classé Saint-Julien in the 1855 classification. Along with Mouton-Rothschild, the family is proud to be the longest-standing family of winemakers in Bordeaux.

The Classification was published on the 18th April 1855 and represented the realities of the market and its evolution over more than a century. Almost 160 years later, the 1855 Classification remains a key reference point and an authority in the wine world.

 

The Vineyard

The 50 hectares (124 acres) of vines at Château Léoville Barton are planted in gravelly soils with a clay subsoil and include a high proportion of old vines to ensure optimum quality. The planting ratio is composed of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc, the traditional Médoc grape varieties.

The vines have an average age of 40 years and the oldest plot dates back to 1953. Complantation (the process of replacing missing or defective vine stocks) is carried out every year to maintain a high planting density of 9100 vines per hectare.

The harvest is always carried out exclusively by hand to preserve the quality of the clusters and allow us to carry out an initial sorting. We work with a team of almost 120 people every year at this crucial moment for the vintage.

The Cellar

During the harvest at Château Léoville Barton, the grapes are brought to the vat-house where they are de-stemmed before being sorted on an optical sorting table and then transferred to temperature controlled wooden vats. The imposing vat-house is the perfect illustration of the traditional approach to wine making at Château Léoville Barton.

The fermentation process generally lasts a few days during which the juices are pumped over the top of the vat twice a day in order to keep the cap of skins moist and enable the juices to absorb the colours, tannins and aromas from this marc. When the maceration process is complete, the next stage is running off the wine i.e. transferring the wine to French oak barrels in which it will be left to age for 18 months. 60% of the barrels used are new oak and sourced from a range of different coopers.