($90-$180) Deep red-ruby. Expressive aromas of currant, plum, mocha, tobacco and minerals, with a slight dusty character. Supple but a bit youthfully inky, with a dusty quality to the moderately sweet fruit. This is a bit dry compared to the young 2006, and one has the impression that the oak tannins are less successfully integrated with the wine's fruit. This concentrated, persistent wine really needs seven or eight years of cellaring.

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[51 hl/ha; M 13%, CF 11%, M 76%; 60% new oak; 34% of the crop] Dark crimson. Lively topnotes of a confident wine with a seriously long term future ahead of it. Very concentrated but some almost sweet, treacly fruit on the front palate and then very fine tannins. Lots built in there but well integrated. Dry tannins but very fine. Not exaggerated. A good difference in drinking dates between this and the second wine Clos du Marquis but not of style. Very bright fruit. Real life. Good for the year. Needs lots of time.

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Performing better from bottle than it did from cask, this blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, and 11% Cabernet Franc has put on weight over the last year. It exhibits the classic style of both Las Cases and St.-Julien in its deep black currant notes interwoven with sweet cherries, wet stones, and toasty vanillin. Made in a structured, medium to full-bodied style with superb concentration, beautiful purity, and admirable symmetry, this beauty is one of the strongest efforts of the vintage.

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(#6 on Wine Spectator's Top 100 list for 2007) Bordeaux's wet, cool 2004 vintage got lost between the exceptional 2003 and 2005, but Jean-Hubert Delon's St.-Julien estate consistently delivers excellent wines in both great and difficult years. Half of the chateau's 250 acres are planted in the famous Clos Leoville Las Cases, a gravelly vineyard that gently slopes down to the Gironde river. The wine was fermented in a mix of stainless-steel tanks, oak vats and cement tanks, then aged for about 18 months in oak barriques.

Intense aromas of currant, blackberry and light vanilla. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a long, caressing finish. Layered, with everything in the right proportion for the vintage. Excellent. Reminds me of the 1996. 20,000 cases made.

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Still a little young. Needs more time