Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Pessac-Léognan
WA 91
Another sleeper of the vintage, the relatively evolved, elegant, complex 2008 Haut-Bergey offers up notes of smoked tobacco, cassis, cherries, licorice, Asian plum sauce and spice box. With abundant fruit, an opulent texture and an elegant style, this pretty, medium-bodied, richly fruity wine should drink well for 12-14 years.Another sleeper of the vintage, the relatively evolved, elegant, complex 2008 Haut-Bergey offers up notes of smoked tobacco, cassis, cherries, licorice, Asian plum sauce and spice box. With abundant fruit, an opulent texture and an elegant style, this pretty, medium-bodied, richly fruity wine should drink well for 12-14 years. -- Robert Parker
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Pessac-Léognan
WA 100
What a blockbuster effort! Atypically powerful, one day, the 2009 Haut-Brion may be considered to be the 21st century version of the 1959. It is an extraordinarily complex, concentrated effort made from a blend of 46% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Cabernet Franc with the highest alcohol ever achieved at this estate, 14.3%. Even richer than the perfect 1989, with similar technical numbers although slightly higher extract and alcohol, it offers up a sensational perfume of subtle burning embers, unsmoked cigar tobacco, charcoal, black raspberries, wet gravel, plums, figs and blueberries. There is so much going on in the aromatics that one almost hesitates to stop smelling it. However, when it hits the palate, it is hardly a letdown. This unctuously textured, full-bodied 2009 possesses low acidity along with stunning extract and remarkable clarity for a wine with a pH close to 4.0. The good news is that there are 10,500 cases of the 2009, one of the most compelling examples of Haut-Brion ever made. It requires a decade of cellaring and should last a half century or more. Readers who have loved the complexity of Haut-Brion should be prepared for a bigger, richer, more massive wine, but one that does not lose any of its prodigious aromatic attractions.
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Pessac-Léognan
WS 96
WA 98
Following a harvest that finished on October 10, Haut-Brion produced a 2010 that should turn out to be one of its all-time greats ... an amazing feat given what they have accomplished over recent vintages. A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc that came in at 14.6% alcohol, the 2010 boasts an opaque purple color as well as a gorgeous perfume of scorched earth/burning embers, blueberries, black currant liqueur and crushed rocks. Full and opulent with nobility, finesse, purity and elegance, this amazing effort possesses extraordinary levels of extract as well as formidable, but sweet, well-integrated tannins. It requires 8-10 years of cellaring and should drink well for 50+ years.Following a harvest that finished on October 10, Haut-Brion produced a 2010 that should turn out to be one of its all-time greats ... an amazing feat given what they have accomplished over recent vintages. A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc that came in at 14.6% alcohol, the 2010 boasts an opaque purple color as well as a gorgeous perfume of scorched earth/burning embers, blueberries, black currant liqueur and crushed rocks. Full and opulent with nobility, finesse, purity and elegance, this amazing effort possesses extraordinary levels of extract as well as formidable, but sweet, well-integrated tannins. It requires 8-10 years of cellaring and should drink well for 50+ years. -- Robert Parker
Varietal: Bordeaux Blend | Location: France - Bordeaux - Pessac-Léognan
Owner Eric Perrin, of Château Carbonnieux, working with star consultant Denis Dubourdieu of the University of Bordeaux, has produced an unusually ripe and powerful red Graves in 2009, with excellent structure. The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot and the wine displays pleasing aromas of super-ripe black fruit and blackcurrant flavor, nicely set off by subtle roasted notes of new oak.