We had some great feedback from a very exclusive crowd of 20 north London wine lovers who attended our first tasting last week. Seasoned wine collectors and those keen to learn more seemed to enjoy the evening equally, not least Adam and me.

We managed to get together a selection of 11 wines from Chateau Leoville Barton and Langoa Barton spanning from ’88 through to ’04. Wines were served in pairs blind to compare the chateaus, youthful and aged wines and high scoring vintages with lesser.

Starting with a ’98 of each, we were disappointed by how dumb and uninteresting they were. The 2000’s, ’01s and ’02s were all good but hard to tell apart. This in spite of the highs score of the Leoville ’00 and the price premium that both ’00s command over the ’01s and ’02s. Perhaps they are all a bit young and time will allow the ’00s to stride ahead?

The 1988 Leoville was fully evolved with earthy notes and just enough fruit left, all together lovely. The evening finished with a ’96 Leoville which was equally gorgeous and complex but more vigorous and substantial.

The surprise star of the evening however was Langoa ’97 with notes of sweet pepper, a compact core and long middle palate, which is drinking beautifully now in spite of being unloved by the ciritcs. The Langoa ’04 was also noteworthy. Although young, it was smokey, cassis and vanilla rich and showed lots of promise.

List of wines

• Leoville: ’88, ’96, ’98, ’00, ’01, 02
• Langoa: ’97, ’98, ’00, ’01, ’04