Chateau Langoa Barton

There are two Bartons in Bordeaux, Leoville and Langoa, with the two being related. Both are owned by the Barton family for nearly two centuries, the longest period for a single-family ownership of any Bordeaux chateaux. The history started when the family under Thomas Barton left Ireland and arrived in Bordeaux, entering the wine trade, acquiring Chateau Le Boscq in St-Estephe.

His grandson Hugh later purchased the two Barton properties proper, starting with Pontet-Langlois, acquired from Pierre-Bernard de Pontet of Pontet-Canet. This is the estate we know today as Langoa-Barton, with the plausible explanation for the name to derive from Langlois.

Hugh set about expanding the vineyards, purchasing small plots of nearby vines to consolidate his position, and so later came to be the owners of the portion of the Leoville estate, which remained separate from Langoa and becomes the present day Leoville-Barton.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, it was Bertram Hugh Barton who was running the business, with the estate ranked as a troisieme cru in the 1855 classification. In 1927 Bertram was killed in an accident and his son Ronald taking on the ownership, and took up residence in the estate before fleeing the country during World War II.

The property remained largely intact fortunately, from the effort of the Guestier family who protected the estate during his absence. Upon his return there was much work to restore the estate, with extensive replanting of vines but not in the cellar, as Ronald was a traditionalist. The wines were quite well received, but it was only in 1969 it moved to estate-bottling, long after many others had done so.

Ronald died in 1986 without an heir, and his nephew Anthony took control, who had a passion for wine and already moved in to Bordeaux since 1951. Anthony now resided in the Langoa estate, which was dated to 1758. The vineyards account for about 25 hectares, south of the Barton and Poyferre sections of the Leoville estate, lying between the villages of Beychevelle and St-Julien.

The terroir is typical Medoc with predominantly gravel soils over a deeper clay. Planted with 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc, the vines are mechanically destemmed and has a two week maceration, before up to 20 months in oak of which 50% are new each year. The wine is fined and filtered prior to bottling, with total production about 8000 cases of the grand vin Chateau Langoa-Barton and a second wine Lady Langoa.

I have recently tasted the 2004 vintage and below is my tasting note:

Appearance

Bright and clear, it has deep ruby color, with thin garnet rims and legs.

Nose

Clean, with medium intensity aromas of black fruit such as blackcurrant, blackberry, plum, mineral notes of lead, maturity notes of savory, kernel notes of chocolate, oak notes of cedar. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry with medium acidity, the wine has medium (+) tannin of ripe and satin texture. Medium in alcohol, medium (+) body and medium (+) intensity flavors of black fruit such as blackcurrant, blackberry, plum and dark cherries, kernel notes of chocolate, oak notes of cedar, sweet spice of cloves. The wine has a medium (+) finish.

Conclusion

Very good quality high-priced St-Julien with a reasonably intense nose of good complexity, the wine has demonstrated the typical communal characters, with a juicy palate, structured yet elegant. Good concentration and having a fairly long length, the wine is ready to drink now, yet still has a lot of potential for ageing, for another 4-6 years.