The 1982 Léoville Poyferré has trumped Las-Cases in previous blind tastings. This is another great Saint-Julien that has stood the test of time, the vintage that really announced Didier Cuvelier and a resurgent château. It has a mixture of red and black fruit, hints of aniseed percolating through with time, all delivered with superb delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with finely honed tannins and a silver thread of acidity. This is one of the more elegant Poyferrés, abraded masterfully by passing time, with just a subtle bitterness on the finish. Divine. (NM)

An absolute joy to drink, and a wine I’ve been lucky enough to have multiple times recently, the 1982 Château Léoville Poyferré is fully mature and has a classic, graceful, nuanced perfume of sweet red and black currants, woodsmoke, tobacco leaf, baking spices, and hints of cedar. With medium to full-bodied richness on the palate, it’s beautifully balanced and has ripe, polished tannins, a solid spine of acidity, and a great finish. It’s clearly fully mature, and I don’t see much upside here, but I have no doubt it will evolve gracefully over the coming decade. It’s a beautiful Léoville Poyferré. This bottle was opened, decanted, and followed over the course of an evening.

The 1982 vintage at Château Leoville-Poyferré has always been one of the reference point vintages for this property during its last stage of classical wines, prior to Michel Rolland being invited in to consult here in the 1990s. The wine showed beautifully at our recent ’82 St. Julien tasting, offering up impressive soil signature on both the nose and palate and plenty of the vintage’s superb fruit tones. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a fine blend of red and black cherries, cigar ash, a complex and classy base of soil tones, well done toasty new oak and a lovely touch of spice in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and focused, with a fine core, impressive transparency, melting tannins and excellent balance on the very long and suave finish. A lovely wine.