It took decades to come around, but today, the wine is a pleasure and a thrill to taste. Elegant, classic, full-bodied, vibrant, and concentrated, the wine displays its black currants, forest floor, cedar wood, lead pencil, and spice nuances with a minimum of coaxing. Long and intense with lift, and fullness on the palate, a bit of air before service helps. Drink from 2022-2040. Tasted Oct 2022

Beautifully fragrant nose, dried flowers and cedar, iron and salted-caramelised cherries: graceful and understated. Refined palate, sleek yet dense with generous and imposing tannins, yet remaining round and approachable. This has real charm with underlying drive but presented in such a complete and harmonious way; polished and precise with tons of energy. A stunning wine and so easy to drink, full of cherries and red berries with savoury touches of cigar smoke and leather that give a hint of maturity but in no way shout that it's more than 40 years old. Just wonderful. Winemaker was Bruno Rolland, who took over from his father, his grandfather and grand uncle. Drinking Window: 2023 - 2041
Tasted by: Georgina Hindle (at Vancouver, 26 Aug 2023)

As I wrote earlier this year, the 1982 Léoville Las Cases is one of the least evolved wines of the vintage, and this impeccably conserved ex-château bottle was, if anything, even more youthful still. Retaining a saturated ruby-black hue at age 40, it unwinds in the glass with aromas of cassis and other dark fruits mingled with notions of pencil shavings and loamy soil. On the palate, it's full-bodied, broad-shouldered and muscular, with an ample core of fruit framed by voluminous, powdery tannins. Rich and concentrated, with an expansive, comparatively low-acid profile, it comes into its own with extended aeration—and with food. 97pts WK Dec 2022
I have had perfect bottles of this cuvee, but, perplexingly, the bottles from my cellar tend to be broodingly backward and require plenty of coaxing. This huge wine is, in many ways, just as massive as Leoville Barton, but it possesses a greater degree of elegance as well as unreal concentration. Classic lead pencil, cassis, kirsch, cedar, and spice characteristics are abundant in both the nose and full-bodied flavors. The tannins are still there, and, at least from my cellar, this 1982 does not appear to have changed much in the last 10-12 years. One wonders how much patience admirers of this brilliant St.-Julien will continue to exhibit. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2050. 100pts RP June 2013 - Hedonist's Gazette

Full medium ruby. Aromas of currant, black cherry, licorice, minerals and flowers. Thick, sweet and deep; still young but in a gentler, lower-acid style than either the '86 or '96. Still, this boasts sneaky intensity and wonderful persistence. Tannins are substantial but thoroughly ripe. Drink 2004 through 2025.

The bottle of 1982 Léoville Las-Cases was sadly out of condition, though fortunately I tasted another example at a private dinner in Bordeaux a few weeks later. To be honest, I have always preferred the 1985 or 1986 to this vintage, and this gives me no reason to change my mind. It has a surliness on the nose that is uncharacteristic of this vintage, tightly wound tertiary scents, melted tar and pencil shavings. The palate is full-bodied with fine grip, dense and quite powerful, yet it is more impressive than pleasurable. The aforementioned vintages have pulled away from the 1982 in recent years, though it remains a very fine Saint-Julien. It just needs to turn its frown upside down. Tasted at the 1982 Dinner at Hatched. Sept 2022