Tasting Notes
Vinous 93
Very good deep red-ruby. Sweet, highly expressive aromas of redcurrant, hot stones, roasted plum, woodsmoke and tobacco. Fuller and more textured in the middle palate, with a chewy, tactile mouth feel that suggests strong extract and a wonderfully pliant texture. A firm mineral underpinning and sound acids frame the fruit. Expansive and seductively sweet in the mouth. Finishes very long and ripe, with thoroughly civilized tannins.
Robert Parker 95
Tasted at Christies’ Boardroom dinner from an ex-chateau bottle. The 1995 Haut Brion has a gorgeous bouquet: less opulent than the bottle encountered in March 2011, here offering a more sedate, but somehow “languid” bouquet of tertiary black fruit, cigar box and autumn leaves that are all beautifully defined. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, open for business with fine tension shimmering throughout. It does not quite possess the breeding or clinical focus of the 1996, but it is a generous Haut-Brion, rounded in texture with Morels and tobacco lining the finish. I would broach bottles of the 1995 before reaching for the 1996. Drink now-2025. Tasted November 2013.
Anticipated maturity: 2014-2025
JancisRobinson.com 18.5
Just lovely wine, and the only one that was not dominated by a single variety, being a Cabernet/Merlot blend. Excellent lustrous, nuanced ruby.. Clearly a very fine mature wine. Strong liquorice notes (Haut-Brion ‘warm bricks’ earthiness?) For a second I wondered if it was a 1998 Hermitage. Very complex. Spread across the palate. My guess is that no one dared guess it was a first growth but we were looking for appreciation in the comments box…
Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030
