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La Mission Haut Brion Blanc 2019

Château La Mission Haut-Brion, Bordeaux, France

Château La Mission Haut-Brion
Bordeaux France
  • 99
    Points
  • The 445 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 3 Pros of
    3 recommend
    this wine
72 99
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    372

  • Producer ranking ?

    24

  • Decanting time

    3h

  • When to drink

    from 2028

  • Food Pairing

    chilled seafood

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Tasted en primeur, the Château La Mission Haut-Brion white 2019 displays a pale yellow colour with shimmering green reflections. The first nose highlights the ripness of the fruit. Meanwhile, aeration reveals the personality of semillon through lime notes. From the attack on the palate, this wine floods the palate with a full-bodied and delicious texture. The palate is quite generous, while also offering a discreet and lively acidity, which br...

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The Story

Formerly named Château Laville Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc is produced in such extremely limited quantities that it is confined to the initiated. Its make-up almost 85% of Semillon, 14% Sauvignon Blanc and a pinch of Muscadelle ? also makes it unique. When young it possesses the characteristics of a premier Gewurztraminer. With time it trades its Alsatian color for the amber of the great Sauterne wines. Then this dry white ...

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Wine Information

Sought after by wine lovers the world over, Château La Mission Haut-Brion white is extremely rare (400 cases per vintage). Formerly named Château Laville Haut-Brion, the Château La Mission Haut-Brion white is a wine for connoisseurs.

This wine is a beautiful pale yellow in color with glints of green. The first nose of this wine is marked by the beautiful maturity of fruit that is ripe without heaviness. When swirled in the glass, the Sé...

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Vintage 2019

BORDEAUX 2019 VINTAGE

When I was visiting Bordeaux early March, Corona was a threat on the horizon and France has been more concerned by a strike of the air traffic control. However, I was travelling to Bordeaux and had the chance to get some first insights to the 2019 vintage. I was very much looking forward to the “en primeur tastings” which were scheduled for March 26, 2020 but the tastings were cancelled mid-March. Immediately I contact...

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc, formerly known as Laville Haut-Brion of course, is complex on the nose with peach skin, orange blossom and honeysuckle aromas gently unfolding with each swirl. As usual with this wine, it only really begins to "sing" after an hour's aeration (something I can afford to do at home and not when tasting at the château.) The palate is poised and vibrant on the entry. Notes of orange rind, melon and white peaches dovetail into a more resinous, textural finish that fans out gloriously. This is outstanding, but one worth cellaring as it will repay bottle age.

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  • 98p
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Information

Origin

Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux

Other wines from this producer

La Chapelle de La Mission Haut Brion

La Mission Haut Brion

Inside Information

The mild and dry 2018-2019 winter period led to a rather precocious budbreak, on March 1st.
Then, in spring, with the cool temperatures, the vine grew slowly. The flowering was beautiful, with neither shatter nor millerandage. The vine growth was supported by consistent, steady rainfall in June, with the vine developing a very beautiful, uniform surface. From the end of June, the year 2019 was marked by several heatwaves. The month of July, which was particularly hot, ranks as the third-hottest July on record, after July 2006 and 2013, registering a record- breaking 42°C (107.6°F) on July 23rd.

A HOT AND DRY SUMMER

In August, the temperature variation between cool nights and hot days favored the development of anthocyanins (which color the grapes and tannins). These periods of intense heat resulted in relatively slow ripening, on the cabernet francs and sauvignons in particular, but did not stunt the vine.

Ripening progressed smoothly across all of the white varieties - which were ready in time for harvesting season - as well as on the earliest merlots.
In September, the long-awaited rain arrived on the 9th of the month, returning from the 21st to the 25th, without any consequence on the grape clusters.

In between these two rainy episodes, the dry, hot continental air accelerated the final ripening stage for all the red grape varieties.

Harvesting of the whites began on August 29th. The grapes were in perfect health. The hot weather during the final stage of maturation had us concerned about lessened acidity, particularly on the Sémillon grapes. For that reason, we decided to switch the usual order of harvesting. After picking the first batches of ultra-ripe Sauvignon, we immediately picked the golden bunches of Sémillon in order to retain as much freshness as possible for this grape variety. We then finished picking the Sauvignon. A customized approach to harvesting in order to let the grapes express their best!

The first, blind tasting of the white wines confirmed that reversing the harvesting order was the right choice this year: the Sauvignon wines have a ripe character without excess and a very good acidic balance. The Sémillons, meanwhile, have a very interesting acid matrix. The white harvest is generous and of very high quality.

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