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Château Haut-Brion 1961

Château Haut-Brion, Bordeaux, France

Château Haut-Brion
Bordeaux France
  • 100
    Points
  • The 71 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 25 Pros of
    25 recommend
    this wine
856 100
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    58

  • Producer ranking ?

    6

  • Decanting time

    3h

  • When to drink

    now to 2035

  • Food Pairing

    Red meat dishes with robust and concentrated flavours.

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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100 points Robert Parker: "The dark garnet-colored 1961 Haut-Brion is pure perfection, with gloriously intense aromas of tobacco, cedar, chocolate, minerals, and sweet red and black fruits complemented by smoky wood. This has always been a prodigious effort (it was the debut vintage for Jean Delmas). It is extremely full-bodied, with layers of viscous, sweet fruit. This wine is akin to eating candy. Consistently an astonishing wine!" (02/96) 9...

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The Story

Château Haut-Brion is the oldest and by far the smallest of the "Premiers Grands Crus" vineyards of the Gironde 1855 classification. Château Haut-Brion is one of the few remaining family-owned domains of the Bordeaux region with a history going back to the 16th century. It has been owned by the American Dillon family since 1935.

 

There is an amazing dual hit of black fruit and fine-grained tannins here, which is rounded off with a wonde...

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Wine Information

1961 A VERY EXCEPTIONAL YEAR
The best vintage since the start of the century. Sumptuous, harmonious, velvety, suave and complex; full of flower and fruit at the same time. An exceptional harmony of smoothed tannin, wood and a very great aromatic length. A unique bottle.

Weather conditions
Sum of temperatures : 3294 °C
Rain : 213 mm
Days where temperature above 30 °C : 27
Harvest : from 12/09/1961 to 25/09/1961

Current vintage notes
...

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Vintage 1961

1961 - the greatest Bordeaux vintage ever?

I’m writing this during the en primeur campaign and notice that the Bordelais château-owners and négociants have been unusually quiet this year. I have followed this part of the market from a distance for close to 30 years now and have been told about a large number of “vintages of the century”. After the wines have been bottled and sold or the other way round, as the case is in Bordeaux, these cla...

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Average Bottle Price

2023 2018 2016 2015 2014 2013 2010 2005
3 290€ +13.8% 2 890€ +21.4% 2 380€ +4.6% 2 276€ +11.4% 2 043€ +7.4% 1 902€ +0.6% 1 890€ +75.3% 1 078€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Tasting note

color

Medium, Ruby red and Dark

ending

Long, Extensive and Round

flavors

Spice, Blackberry, Blackcurrant, Licorice, Leather and Steely

nose

Intense, Round and Complex

recommend

Yes

taste

High in Acidity, High tannin, Concentrated, Well-structured, Perfectly balanced, Full-bodied, Round, Rich, Fresh, Sweet and Sweet tannins

Verdict

Sophisticated and Impressive

Written Notes

The Rev was born in 1961, so a bunch of Bordeaux had to happen before the end of the night.  Now seemed like the right time, especially when a magnum of 1961 Haut Brion.  Its nose was the perfect blend of deep purple, chocolate, charcoal and tobacco.  ‘A little too young for you,’ Dr. Evil smiled, but I was more than content with its rich plum and chocolate flavors.  This was creamy, long and wealthy with long acidity.  ‘So good’ appeared in my notes repeatedly (98M).

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  • 98p
This spectacular vintage had a rough start due to a cold period at the end of May causing severe coulure. After a poor fruit set in late spring, the weather changed into very hot and dry for the summer, actually the driest on record. Very fine weather in September guaranteed ideal ripeness of grapes and extremely high concentration. The rainfall this year was almost half the average in Haut-Brion. Both of the two bottles were in good condition. Decanted for two hours. This is Haut-Brion at its best without a doubt. Very dark, garnet in colour. Gorgeously intense nose – exotic, sweet black fruits and oriental spices. Full-bodied, very well balanced with an excellent structure. This finely concentrated but generously open wine shows a lovely sweet, round and intense ending. A real joy of a wine.
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  • 97p

The 1961 Haut-Brion is the third bottle of this wine that I have tasted in the last couple of weeks – no complaints there. It has a slightly more advanced bouquet with touches of game and oxtail infusing the black fruit, hints of black truffle and scorched leather. The palate is medium-bodied with a slightly gamey entry. Great length and girth here, although other bottles demonstrated more precision on the finish. On this occasion it is surpassed by the superior 1961s from Palmer and Latour, but a pristine bottle could give those a run for their money. Tasted at the 1961 dinner Chairman Miaow’s in Hong Kong.

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  • 97p

A complex wine that is still majestic, powerful and long. This bottle is more intense than other bottles I have tried in the past and the youthfulness and vigor is noticeable in the vibrant character and long finish. Beautiful wine that ranks as among the finest from Haut-Brion, along with their 1982 and 1989.

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  • 99p
Tasted in September 2006. Deep dark red. Smell of extracted coffee beans, port wine like and a bit peppery on the palate. It seemed that this bottle experienced a kind of heat shock during its storage before it's arrival at our tasting, because this vintage normally is superb for Haut Brion.
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The 1961 vintage – a frost affected year with a small crop – was another brilliant wine. This was a really richly concentrated wine with deepset mushroom/choco-mint aromas and flavours, fine loose-knit bony tannins and plenty of flavour length (97/100 points). Jean Delmas spoke of this vintage as a very challenging one, its fame perhaps emphasizing that great wine can never be made by over ripe grapes.
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  • 97p
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Information

Origin

Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Extraordinary

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

There is a possibility

Glass time

2h

Other wines from this producer

Château Haut-Brion Blanc

La Clarté de Haut-Brion

Le Clarence de Haut-Brion

Plantiers de Haut-Brion

Inside Information

Wine Advocate #103
Feb 1996		 Robert M. Parker, Jr. 100 Drink: 1994 - 2000 $1650-$5647
The 1961 Haut-Brion was pure perfection, with gloriously intense aromas of tobacco, cedar, minerals, and sweet red and black fruits complemented by smoky wood. This has always been a prodigious effort (it was the debut vintage for Jean Delmas). 

The notes for this wine are taken from the description of Series IV - Flight D of the 1995 tasting conducted in Munich by Helga and Hardy Rodenstock. Many years after the tasting from which this note derives allegations were made concerning the authenticity of old and rare bottles of wine sold by Hardy Rodenstock to collectors around the world. The matter has been the subject of numerous articles, litigation and at least one book. Mr. Parker believes that the wines served to him at this tasting were authentic so this note and the others from that specific tasting continue to be posted on eRobertParker.com.
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