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  • Country ranking ?

    721
  • Producer ranking ?

    51
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    now to 2050
  • Food Pairing

    Lamb with aubergines

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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

Château Haut-Brion’s tasting notes :

A GOOD YEAR
This vintage is a wine full of contradictions and difficult to make out. The grapes were acid, but produced a subtle wine. The sugar level was unusually high but the phenolic ripeness altered depending on the different varieties.
The Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon seemed riper than the Merlots. The quality was very close to the last year's crop, but the structure of the wine was dif...

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Vintage 1996

1996 presents itself as a “classic” Bordeaux year, although – as Jancis Robinson MW wrote – not in the “lean” sense; Although Farr Vintners director Tom Hudson told the drinks industry it may have been a "very good" rather than "really great" year as it was not uniformly excellent across the region .

As a reminder, 1996 was a particularly promising vintage for Médoc wines. The Berry Bros & Rudd website boasts: “This is one of the great post...

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Tasting note

color

Full

ending

Medium

nose

Intense

recommend

Yes

Written Notes

While in some vintages La Mission Haut-Brion and Haut-Brion can be close in quality, that is not the case in this vintage. The 1996 Haut-Brion, a blend of 50% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cabernet Franc is clearly on a higher plane than the La Mission. There is something much more expansive and complete on the nose: greater depth of fruit, more harmonious with scents of underbrush, tar, black olive and this bottle perhaps less "feral" than I have noticed on previous examples. The palate is very well balanced with dark cherries, sous-bois and cedar. This is one vintage where I think the Cabernet Franc plays an important role and lends more complexity. This is a 1996 that has retained and built upon beguiling fleshiness and it will continue to evolve with style and panache. Tasted July 2016.

  • 95p
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Information

Origin

Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Average

Fake factory

None

Other wines from this producer

Château Haut-Brion Blanc

La Clarté de Haut-Brion

Le Clarence de Haut-Brion

Plantiers de Haut-Brion

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