The fruit took more effort to work with this year. It was the first time we experienced bunches with ripe, green and pink fruit, along with berries attacked by botrytis.

We had to be careful not to over extract. We needed to maintain cooler temperatures during fermentation and reduce the amount of pumping over we did in years like 2009 and 2010.

2011 St. Julien is classic in style. This is a guide to help you find the best wines and values from the appellation in 2011.

Many of the wines have charm, freshness and ripe flavors, but compared to more recent vintages like 2009 and 2010, 2011 Pauillac feels light in weight and style. This will help you find the best wines and values from Pauillac in 2011.

We recently equipped some of our managers with iPads to send instant information and photographs of each parcel. That allows us to know what is going on at all times with each parcel and even individual vines.

Powerful and rich with ample tannins, acidity and structure, this classic vintage of Leoville Las Cases needs a lot of time in the cellar before consumption.

The use of optical sorting was a huge help in this vintage to Leoville Poyferre. It really helped with the the difficulty in sorting the berries that were arriving in multiple stages of maturity