2016 Château Haut-Brion
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Haut-Brion has a gorgeous bouquet with red berry fruit, camphor, wild heather and hints of truffle, all beautifully defined and focused. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, exquisitely balanced, silky smooth and with a very persistent finish. The Merlot is very expressive here at the moment, shaping this Pessac-Léognan. Utterly seductive.
Critic scores
James Suckling
Wine Enthusiast
More reviews and scores
Aromas of graphite and delicate red currants with an aromatic lift. The palate is medium- to full-bodied, showing energy and intensity, with concentration and round, enveloping, silky tannins that envelop the fruit and persist through the finish. Accessible now, but it deserves more time. Try from 2028. 10 Years On retrospective.
Muscular tannins, fresh acidities, this has less generosity than the Mission, still almost primary at ten years old, focused and vivid, riven with sage, wild rosemary and fragrant toasted spice, a glorious uplift through the palate, bilberry and cranberry fruits, austere architecture that needs a good few more years.
The 2016 Haut-Brion has a precise, focused bouquet of blackberry, briar, pressed flowers and supremely well-integrated oak; there is real panache here. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, pinpoint acidity and a little grittiness to the texture. Quite spicy, revealing white pepper and cedar toward a finish that just tapers in slightly, probably because this is beginning to close down. I have had better bottles in the past. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting.
About the producer
Ch. Haut-Brion is the only classified growth in Pessac-Léognan. One of the five First Growths, it is renowned for producing both exceptional reds and whites. Along with its sister estate, Ch. la Mission Haut-Brion, it is part of the Clarence Dillon stable.