A family dynasty whose story is worthy of a novel by Oscar Wilde.
History
The simple fact of evoking the name of Barton you understand that stands before you an unavoidable family in the Médoc landscape, with history intimately linked to the origins of the Bordeaux trade.
An adventure that began in 1725, when Thomas Barton, a merchant from Ireland, landed his boat in the port of Bordeaux. He fell in love with the region and devoted himself to the wine trade, which is when the Barton trading house was born. Over the years, Thomas Barton was increasingly considered by Bordeaux. However, as the seasons progress, so does his age. His only offspring, a son named William, did not, in his eyes, have the material to take his succession within the company.
It should be known that at that time, in France, any property owned by a foreigner would return to the crown on the day of his death. This was Aubaine’s right, which is why Thomas will never buy a single plot of vines. He closed his eyes in 1780 and his son inherited the company.
William was not fit for business, so it was his son Hugh who took the reins of the trading house at only 20 years old, and this, with brilliance. Unfortunately in October 1793, in the midst of the Revolution, Hugh and his wife were arrested, imprisoned and their property seized.
They nevertheless managed to be released from prison in December of the same year and fled to Ireland. They did not return until 1821 when Hugh acquired Langoa Castle. It was here that everything began for the castle.
In 1826, Hugh bought a 50-hectare parcel of land that was once owned by the Château Léoville Las Cases. Naquis then the castle Léoville Barton, history is on.
The properties will be bequeathed from generation to generation, which will make it, in the company of Château Mouton Rothschild, the greatest family continuity among all the great classified growths of 1855. Today it is Lilian, daughter of Anthony Barton, who is at the head of the family property in close collaboration with his children Damien and Mélanie.
The vineyard and its terroir
It does not escape anyone that a vineyard is nothing without its terroir. It is easy to make good wine in the cellar, but you have to bring exceptional grapes. This is where the notion of terroir makes sense.
Here, whether Château Léoville or Château Langoa, the soil is composed of gravel on clay subsoil, typical of the Médoc.
Even soil, however the composition of the vineyard differs somewhat, which makes each castle unique.
The vineyard of Château Langoa Barton covers an area of 20 hectares, consisting of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 11% Cabernet Franc. The average age of the vines is 37 years.
Château Léoville Barton, meanwhile, covers 50 hectares with a vineyard of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc.
The plots are included on the two plateaus that make up the vineyard of Saint-Julien. Those of Château Langoa are mostly on the cooler soils of Beychevelle, where those of Château Léoville are on the northern plateau, in the town of Saint-Julien. This tiny geographical divergence will be found in the bottle, with two significantly different wine profiles.
This exceptional terroir will also be rewarded in 1855, when the classification of the classified grands crus of the Médoc, since the Château Léoville is found 2nd Grand Cru Classé and Château Langoa 3th Grand Cru Classé.
A renewed vat room
Many properties that over the vintages are equipped with a last generation winery however, if it has a makeover in 2021, the techniques used are not innovative because they were already used in the past.
Where some use thermo-regulated stainless steel tanks, the Barton family prefers wood. A choice guided by its inertia, temperature changes are slower and therefore sweeter for the wine. Unfortunately because of the work the old tanks did not hold. It should be noted that each tank is identified, which makes it possible to know which is planned for the production of the Langoa of which is planned for the Léoville. Wooden tanks require a lot of maintenance, but it doesn’t matter as long as the juices that come out of them meet their requirements.
The two castles are vinified in the same cellar unlike the classification of Saint-Émilion wines, the classification of Médoc wines established in 1855 allows to produce two different wines in the same place.
The temperature of the vat room is constant, without the need to cool the place. To understand by what process, one must look up and contemplate the amazing decor after these large windows. It is a moucharabieh wall, an ingenious reminder to the exterior walls of the castle made by the architect. Beyond the aesthetic aspect, this type of wall allows in winter to let in the sun while in summer it allows, on the contrary, to make more shade. As the sun is at its zenith, the rays hit the tiles and are reflected outwards. The room remains constantly fresh.
For a more comfortable and safer work for the teams when we enter the cellar, we can realize that the tanks are below us, which allows us to carry out the tasks above them and thus avoid any risk of injury. Finally, and always with the same concern for safety, gas extractors are installed at the four corners of the winery. The conditions are therefore optimal for the creation of exceptional wines.
A most meticulous work
The tool is at the forefront of its use, and here again, the requirements of the Barton family and their teams act like real magicians.
As with every vintage, at the end of summer and at the beginning of autumn, the harvest kicks off. In Langoa they extend over a period of two weeks, are manual, and require the presence of a hundred pickers who will relax throughout the 70 hectares of the property. However, for several years, there has been a real problem with the design of their harvesting teams, the decreasing number of candidates complicates the task.
Once the vine is stripped of its bunches, the grapes arrive on the optical sorters. They will be scraped and then sorted in order to determine which will be retained to go into the vats which will then be transported and transferred to the wood vats of the gravity vat.
During the vinification the juices will be wound 2 to 3 times a day, allowing a perfect extraction of the tannins. Once the fermentation is complete, the wine will be sold in barrels to carry out its aging over a period of 18 months.
60% of the barrels used are new wood and 40% of a wine (that is, they were used for a vintage before). The Barton family usually works with 5 to 6 coopers, the goal being to obtain wines with different profiles which allows, during the final assembly, to obtain wines that are subtle, fine and of remarkable complexity.
The final blend is determined by mutual agreement between the Barton family, their technical director and consulting oenologist Éric Boissenot. It is then that the magic of blending will work, or how, by working several grape varieties planted on different plots and aged in different barrels, can lead to a singular wine that will be the most beautiful image of the vintage.
On average, 200,000 bottles of Léoville and 80,000 of Langoa are produced each year.
This timeless moment, spent with Lilian Barton-Sartorius, allowed me to immerse myself in the state of mind of the Barton family where the requirement is at the service of excellence.
