Chateau Haut Brion 2024

WEINWISSER: "47.2 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 37.5 % Merlot, 15.3 vol% Cabernet Franc, 26 hl/ha. Kleine Ernte aufgrund Mehltaubefall am Merlot. Eine Besonderheit, normalerweise ist Haut-Brion aufgrund der Lage geschützt. Verführerisches Bouquet, frischgepflückte Wildkirsche, edle Cassiswürze und Flieder. Im zweiten Ansatz Heidelbeere, Sandelholz und Minze. Am sublimen Gaumen mit unglaublicher Raffineße und Eleganz, seidiger Textur, engmaschigem Tanningerüst, dabei saftig und tänzerisch bleibend mit durchtrainiertem Körper. Im konzentrierten nicht enden wollenden Finale schwarzbeerige Konturen, Estragon und royale Adstringenz. Die Eisenfaust im Samthandschuh aus Pessac!"

JAMES SUCKLING: "This year, the style of Haut Brion shows through with transparency, beautiful balance and precision. Fine austerity, with excellent minerality, dark olives and red and dark berries. Structured on the mid-palate. Beautiful depth for the vintage, with really fine-grained tannins and a lengthy finish that lingers. So much vibrancy and finesse. A classic vintage."

VINUM: "Dunkles Rubinrot; im Duft wie oft zurückhaltender als La Mission Haut-Brion, jedoch mit Tiefgang, eingekochte Brombeeren, Orangenblüten, getrocknete Kräuter; fokussiert und mit ordentlich Druck am Gaumen, saftige Frucht, mit erstaunlicher Konzentration, perfekt dosierte Tannine und Säure, langes, würziges, mineralisch geprägtes Finale auf Blutorangen."

JEB DUNNUCK: "I wouldn't be surprised to see the 2024 Château Haut-Brion be the wine of the vintage, and while it's not going to make you forget any of the recent truly great releases, it has more depth, suppleness, and charm than the vast majority of wines in the vintage. Ripe blackcurrants, scorched earth, graphite, crushed stone, and violets all define the aromatics, and it has nicely integrated oak, a layered, ripe, seamless mouthfeel, and building tannins. It's a beautiful, layered, elegant Haut-Brion."

LISA PERROTTI-BROWN: "Deep garnet-purple colored. Needs a lot of shaking to wake up scents of crushed black currants, red currant jelly, and boysenberries, followed by hints of Sichuan pepper, garrigue, and crushed rocks. The medium-bodied palate has a firm texture of ripe, fine-grained tannins and great freshness framing the tightly wound, mineral-laced fruits, finishing on a lingering ferrous note."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Cherry pipe tobacco, flowers, currants, spice, smoke, and herbs fill the perfume. The wine is medium-bodied, elegant, fresh, and soft, with delicate red fruits that shine in the mid-palate, and carry through to the energetic finish. The wine blends 47.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37.5% Merlot, and 15.3% Cabernet Franc. 13.2% ABV, 3.7 pH. Picking took place September 17 - October 4. Yields were 27 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2030-2050."

FALSTAFF: "Dunkles Rubingranat, opaker Kern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Frische Herzkirschen, feine Kräuterwürze, ein Hauch von Brombeerkonfit, frische Orangenzesten, facettenreiches Bukett. Straff, elegant, reife Kirschfrucht, frisch und anhaftend, zeigt gute Länge, mineralischer Abgang, die Würze des Cabernet Franc kommt gut zum Ausdruck."

ANSON: "Medium to full intensity, takes its time to open, this is carefully built, slow and steady in its expression, textured, restrained, cocoa bean, espresso, redcurrant, orchard, sage, bilberry. Very much a classical style of Haut-Brion that will I am sure give great pleasure after a decade in bottle - not as monumental as some, but don't count this out - there are all the bones of this exceptional wine, and the tannic architecture will widen over ageing. 1.7% press, 75% new oak, 26hl/h yield, Jean-Pierre Masclef technical director and Jean-Pierre Delmas estate director."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "The 2024 Haut-Brion is more perfumed than La Mission Haut-Brion, unfurling in the glass with aromas of raspberries, cassis, dark berries and spices mingled with elegantly floral touches. Medium to full-bodied, layered and sappy, it has a firm texture and powdery tannins, leading to a long, spicy and lead pencil-inflected finish. Composed of 47.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37.5% Merlot and 15.3% Cabernet Franc, this vintage features one of the highest proportions of Cabernet Franc in recent years—comparable to vintages such as 1993, 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2020—and should gain harmony with the élevage. In the context of the vintage, this is a notable success, owing in large part to Haut-Brion’s intramural position in Pessac, where the estate’s terroir benefits from slightly warmer average temperatures than properties located outside the city, contributing to more complete ripening of the grapes."

DECANTER: "Sweet floral and red berry scents on the nose - cherry sweets and perfume. Succulent and massy in the mouth, this has flesh and muscle - generous and plentiful with a sweet and cool, spiced edge to the fruit. Clean and pure, lacking a touch in definition, but good length and push. Dried herbs, cherry stone and cranberry fruit with some sweet tobacco on the finish. I like the filling texture, but it tapers towards the finish and loses a bit of momentum in terms of density. Enjoyable minty, cola, liquorice minerality. Feels quite classic and should expand over ageing. 3.6pH. 1.7% press wine. 75% new oak."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Floral aromas. A touch more fruit than La Mission. Middling intensity but firmly structured with plenty of drive. Misses some of the characteristic opulence but there’s a serious structure for ageing."