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Château Haut-Brion 1982

Château Haut-Brion, Bordeaux, France

Château Haut-Brion
Bordeaux France
  • 99
    Points
  • The 268 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 24 Pros of
    24 recommend
    this wine
855 99
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    225

  • Producer ranking ?

    23

  • Decanting time

    3h

  • When to drink

    now to 2040

  • Food Pairing

    Mushroom Risotto

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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1982 versus 1990 Bordeaux

When you receive an invitation to a comparative tasting of all Premier Crus from the two great vintages of 1982 and 1990, you drop everything and clear your diary. 1982 and 1990 represent the beginning and end of perhaps the greatest era in the history of Bordeaux. During these nine years there were only two vintages that could be seen as disappointments: 1984 and 1987. It could rightly be stated that the period fr...

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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

1982 AN EXCEPTIONAL YEAR
Very great wine. An outstanding vintage year for both quantity and quality. A wine with great harmony and balance, very rich in tannin. This wine ends beautifully full and complex at the same time.

Weather conditions
Sum of temperatures : 3300 °C
Rain : 290 mm
Days where temperature above 30 °C : 18
Harvest : from 15/09/1982 to 24/09/1982

Current vintage notes
It is very seldom that such good conditions are...

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Vintage 1982

1982 by James Suckling

The 1982 vintage in Bordeaux changed the world of wine and my life. It was the first vintage I tasted from barrel as a young wine writer working for the American magazine The Wine Spectator, and I was amazed at how magnificent the quality of a young red could be in barrel.

I remember the first barrel samples I tasted in the summer of 1983 at Château Prieuré-Lichine with the late wine author and winemaker Alexis Lic...

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Average Bottle Price

2019 2016 2015 2014 2012 2010 2005 2000
540€ +73.1% 312€ +13.9% 274€ +2.6% 267€ +1.1% 264€ +10.5% 239€ +68.3% 142€ +10.1% 129€

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 and Ruby red

ending

Long, Lingering and Smooth

flavors

Blackcurrant, Smoky, Blackberry, Mineral, Mint and Vanilla

nose

Intense, Complex, Ripe and Seductive

recommend

Yes

taste

High in Acidity, Warming, Medium tannin, Complex, Concentrated, Perfectly balanced, Developing, Medium-bodied, Harmonious, Elegant, Focused, Dry and Silky tannins

Verdict

Well-rounded and Impressive

Written Notes

It was back to Bordeaux one, second to last time, and it was one of the younger red flights of the weekend, but that was ok, as it was 1982 vs. 1989, HB vs. LMHB.  That’s about as good a ‘young’ flight of Bordeaux that one can have, for sure.  We began with the 1982 Haut Brion, which had sexy aromas of nuts, caramel, pencil and gravel.  The palate showed the gravelly Graves side of the wine big time, but it also had loads of cassis fruit.  It was very spiny and dry and truly a classy wine, underrated by 1982 First Growth standards (96).

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  • 96p

Though having tasted the Haut-Brion 1982 on numerous occasions, it is still a divine Pessac-Léognan to cherish. Here at The Glasshouse restaurant, it has that lovely warm gravel on a summer's day bouquet, brown autumn leaves, bay leaf and here= a slightly more conspicuous note of black olive than I have noticed in the past. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, again a little more diffuse than its fellow 1982 First Growths, but with just as much charm. If anything, it feels a little tighter and more backward than previous examples, perhaps suggesting that bottles of excellent provenance will last many years. It is a wonderful 1982 First Growth, not a pinnacle of the vintage, but disarmingly and utterly charming. Tasted July 2014.

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  • 95p

This is just a beautiful wine. It's pure silk on the palate. The fruit is ripe, sweet, fresh, subtle, and the smoky, cigar wrapper, wet earth, burning campfire and sweet, cherry notes just sing. it is hard to say what is better, the nose or the palate. And who cares? Both are equally stunning! Popped and poured, this is in the sweet spot, and it should get even better, if well stored.

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  • 98p

Good color in the glass. Graphite, leather, cedar and cassis in the nose – very classic minerality for Ch. Haut Brion. A lovely satin mouth-feel, delicious black currant and cherry fruit with some backbone of tannins. Good balance and length. Beautiful wine! I’d give it a 93, but palate fatigue may be a factor as we get to the end of the evening. I had this wine a year ago with Diane and friends and I thought it nearly perfect.

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  • 93p
Tasted in March 2005. Surprisingly quite ripe and light in color. Although it's structure, complexity and class was very compelling, I expected much more from this wine. Has this wine already peaked?
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  • 92p
Ruby. Ripe, rich, scented, plums, leather, tobacco, intense, layered, detailed and complex, lovely nose, flirting, very mineral with air. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, fruity, rich, fresh, detailed, ripe, plums, still structured, quite youthful, long finish. 97
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  • 97p
The 1982 vintage was an extremely warm year. Greatly prized by collectors in Australia, this is probably the most silky smooth of all the Haut Brions with its complex cassis/dark cherry/grilled almond aromas and flavours. The palate is amazingly multi-layered, like glazes on a canvass, with fine silken tannins, and perfectly balanced savoury oak (97/100 points).
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  • 97p
Chateau Haut-Brion 1982 Open and sexy though not very complex nose of ripe plums and currants with mushrooms, herbs and spices notes. Deep for sure but not really stunning. Much better palate than nose with full, ripe, sweet, maturing fruit of plums, blackberries, coffee mint and spice. Still youthful with very silky tannins, smooth, seamless mid-palate and very long, elegant finish. Builds in the glass over several hours. Now-2028 95p
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  • 95p
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Information

Origin

Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Good

Fake factory

None

Glass time

1h

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

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate / I know Jean Delmas, whom I respect as one of the world's greatest wine producers, has always thought the 1982 Haut Brion was similar to the 1959, but I have yet to see that. It seems to me the 1989 is closer to the 1959, another perfect wine and one of the all-time great Haut Brions. While the 1982 is a beauty, it has never hit the highest notes this vintage or terroir can achieve. Complex aromatics of scorched earth, smoked herbs, and sweet red and black currants are followed by a full-bodied, silky-textured wine, but I have never felt this offering has possessed the concentration, texture, or multidimensional personality found in such vintages as 1989, 1990, and more recent years. Nevertheless, this is essentially splitting hairs as the 1982 remains a superb Haut Brion. Seemingly less evolved than the 1990, it is capable of another 20-30 years of longevity. Perhaps there is something in reserve that will reveal itself in the next decade. Drink now-2035.

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