2016 Château Langoa Barton, St Julien, Bordeaux

The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.

St Julien is the smallest of the ‘Big Four’ Médoc communes although, without any First Growths, it is recognised to be the most consistent of the main communes with many châteaux turning out impressive wines year after year. The wines can be judged as much by texture as flavour, and there is a sleek, wholesome character to the best. At their very finest they combine Margaux’s elegance and refinement with Pauillac’s power and substance.

Château Langoa-Barton, 3rd Classified Growth, was the first of the two Bordeaux wine estates bought by Hugh Barton in the 1820s, the other being Léoville-Barton, 2nd Classified Growth. Hugh Barton was a descendant of an Irish family which settled in Bordeaux in the 18th century and which has a long and distinguished history in the region’s wine trade. Both properties are still family-owned and run and together represent the longest tradition of unchanged ownership in the Médoc. After the death of the late Anthony Barton in 2022, his daughter Lilian and grandson Damien Barton have now taken the reins.