Anthony Barton
I’m not sure that Bordeaux always realises just how much good Anthony Barton has done to the region over the years. Every time wine merchants around the world get fed up with constant pushes to higher and higher prices, somebody mentions Anthony Barton and his ‘steady as she goes’ strategy at Leoville and Langoa, and all is forgiven again.
‘I want people to buy my wine and to drink it – that’s why I release my entire stock at en primeur time, and why I try to keep it reasonably priced.’
Back at home, his strategy is not always seen in such favourable terms. ‘Some of my neighbours have questioned the effect it has on the appellation if we don’t all raise our prices equally. Not always to my face of course. Some of my high profile neighbours have a policy of high prices, and withhold the stock to keep demand high. But surely that can’t last forever. And even at our reasonable prices I am making jolly decent profits, so why do they want that much more? Perhaps the difference is our capital dates back to 1800, so we don’t have a mortgage. To get the financing for these big estates, today people have to show business plans of how their prices are going to keep going up. But plans, as well all know, are almost as bad as weather forecasts.’
‘I’m not alone though. Lynch Bages to a large extent is also reasonably priced and makes very good wine. They do have a good sized estate and are well distributed, but have always tried to be reasonable, and Jean Charles Cazes is a good successor to his father.’
Barton has been here now for half a century, moving here in 1950. His first visit was in 1948, when he uncle Ronald owned the property. As a boy, he grew up in County Kildare, Ireland, at the Straffan Estate (no longer in his family, and now a golf course that has featured in the Ryder Cup). In Ireland in the 1940s, whiskey and Guiness were the drinks of choice, and he barely thought about the family property over in France, that had been part of his extended family since 1759.
Educated in England, at Stowe, and then at Jesus College Cambridge, where he failed to graduate, heading off to Uncle Ronald’s was more a way to take some time out and decide what he wanted to do with his life. At the time, the property was run down, hadn’t been renovated after German occupation during World War Two, the vineyards were hardly producing any workable grapes – and there was little money to be made in the wine industry. However, his uncle had no heirs, and offered him the chance to take over, and he decided he had little other options open to him.
Starting off in his family’s merchant firm of Barton & Guestier, he hated living in the city, and only enjoyed being up in Saint Julien. ‘Even today,’ he says, ‘I hate crowds. I’m truly a country boy at heart. I would really rather be on the sofa with a nice glass of wine – either my own, or an Alsace white.’ However, it took years to actually get to the helm of the chateaux, and he only really took over in 1984.
‘Since I arrived here, the differences in the wineries across Bordeaux have been enormous. Perhaps temperature control has made the biggest difference to quality, by reducing volatile acidity. People never write about this, but some of the wines of the period when I started could have been poured over salads – even the great vintages, like 47, the wines had huge levels of volatile acidity, and I sometimes wonder if that helped them age. At Langoa and Leoville, we started off in half measures with this, putting in a heat exchanger that involved a huge amount of pumping, then graduating to more effective methods. Today we have the spirals inside the wooden vats that allow very precise control, and usually vinify between 28-30 degrees.’
With Jacques Boissenot as consultant, he has also recently introduced co-innocuation, carrying out the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation at the same time. ‘We found that has been enormously successful, and are very happy with the results.’
But some things he hasn’t modernised. ‘I don’t believe in the tendency towards late picking – I don’t understand it. Don’t understand why people say ‘they had the courage to hang on’. We like to pick while the fruit is still alive. They have the idea that the later you wait the better the wine will be, but there’s a limit to that. Like every fruit they reach a certain stage and after that they degrade. Can see some grapes on the vines begin to shrivel before they are picked – they may have high alcohol, but that’s not (all) we are looking for.’
That’s no doubt why, when you ask what kind of wine he wants to make, he says simply, ‘One that’s drinkable’, and why he also admits, ‘We don’t have very old library of wines here – we enjoy them and drink them, and when they’ve gone, they’ve gone!
He has sensible views across the board, and never takes himself too seriously, another reason why he is so universally admired as a winemaker and as a dinner companion. ‘Parker points have become almost a bad thing. The 2008 campaign is a case in point – as soon as Parker came out comparing it to 2005 (and why did he do that?) the prices rose, and then campaign finished.’
‘As with ever year, things happened in stages – first threats against high prices from merchants, second stage chateaux came out timidly and buying began slowly, third stage Parker came out with high points and prices went up. Fourth stage people started getting frantic, then fifth stage people ended up saying the Bordelais have robbed us. If people think the prices are too high, why don’t they have the courage to not buy it?’
‘The Bordelaise are always blamed, but it’s the market as well. I’m sad to say that the 2009 is going to go through the ceiling – it looks like it will be at least as expensive as 05.’
Part of what gives him this down to earth view is that Barton has spent much of his life on the commercial side of the business – first with Barton & Guestier, and then with his own company ‘Les Vins Fins Anthony Barton', and he has travelled extensively both with them, and with his chateaux.
‘A lot of proprietors never went abroad, and just knew the Bordeaux market. This leads to things like the 1997 campaign (and to some extent the 2007), when they believe all is well because their wine has been sold to Bordeaux merchants, not realising that it has got stuck in the pipeline. With 2007, some wines are being discounted by 40% from their opening price, but still some property owners are not fully aware of this.’
‘It’s a virus that hits Bordeaux pretty much every 10 years - 72, 84, 97, 2007 – prices come out higher than the previous year even though the quality is less good. But I’m not sure the prices are going to go significantly back down from this point on.’
‘But Bordeaux is a wonderful place to live. I like the atmosphere here, on the whole it's all very friendly, not a lot of rivalry, iwith just one or two very small exceptions. I don’t think there’s even a rivalry between right and left bank, but it is a sort of a Rubicon – we are great friends with the Manoncourts’s at Figeac, but hardly ever cross the river!’
His sensible attitude extends to the future also - he has already transferred ownership of his properties to his daughter Lilian, knowing the problems caused when his uncle left it so late to make the same transfer to him.
‘The term Bordeaux today covers a multitude of sins – there are wines at 2 euros still being called Bordeaux. The CIVB has allowed people to plant vines in the wrong places, and make too much of it – and many generic Bordeaux sell for the same price they did 20 years ago. Then instead of reducing production, making better quality and charging more, instead they tried to increase demand by bringing the price down further,which inevitably leads to cutting corners. To my mind, Bordeaux is wrong to be competing on price because there will always be somewhere cheaper, but you can always try to be the best.’
THE TASTING
Barton on the difference between the two: ‘We vinify them the same (we believe we have the best way of vinifying wines and we apply them to both wines) , and usually the percentage of grapes in each is around the same, so differences can only be the terroir – geographically Langoa is placed closer to Beychevelle and Levoille vinearyds further north, closer to Pauillac, so perhaps that accounts for the subtle distinctions).
Langoa 2008 - The wine on the nose is as young as a true primeur sample, with the fruit so evident, lovely ‘matiere premiere’, there are savoury herbs and very soft, plump fruits. 76% cabernet, 25% merlot, with a tiny dribble of cabenet franc. Excellent quality.
Leoville 2007 – This 07 is gorgeous, a good example of how the best properties still performed in this vintage. Lovely plump, rich fruits, not at all the rather sad, drab image that is often given of this year. (Barton, incidentally, came down around 15% from the year before in price).
Langoa 2000 – Very perfumed, a lovely lilting nose. This is a gentle, welcoming wine, really so charming. Just rich plums and damsons, plenty of body and length, and just hints of tertiary aromas coming through.
Leoville 1999 - This has a slightly restrained edge still, and opens up in the mouth. It doesn’t have the really wonderful depth of fruit as the 2000 Langoa, but it is a good, elegant wine.
Langoa 1996 – That has an excellent balance of sweetness and a slightly savoury herby edge, a delicate, slightly floral nose, gentle spice. Very accomplished wine, with restraint and elegance - a great example of why Saint Julien is such a beguiling appellation.
Leoville 1995 – Lovely depth of fruit and gentle spiciness again. Both this and the 1996 are very good vintages, and the individual character of the estates comes through strongly, with the power of Leoville balancing the elgance of Langoa in 96. The length of this is very impressive. And here are the tertiary flavours, the ones that distinguish Bordeaux as it gets older. .