2021 Château Haut Brion

The 2021 Haut-Brion is an excellent wine. Despite its mid-weight structure, the 2021 possesses notable dynamic energy and layers of complexity that build with time in the glass. Scorched earth, leather, tobacco, incense, licorice and dried herbs are some of the many notes that open with aeration. The 2021 is a quiet, understated Haut-Brion, but all its signatures are present. Today, the it is not quite as showy as it was en primeur, but it is a fine effort nonetheless.

- Antonio Galloni (12/2023)

This is beautifully crafted and very perfumed, with ultra-fine tannins and vivid dark fruit such as blackcurrants, as well as dark chocolate, hazelnuts and hints of forest floor, mushrooms, tar, matchstick and oyster shells. Drink or hold. (07/2024)

In comparison to its sibling La Mission Haut-Brion, the 2021 Château Haut-Brion is firmer and much more masculine, with an impressive, almost austere style in its smoky red and black fruits, salted meats, graphite, tobacco, and crushed stone-driven aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and elegant on the palate, it picks up density and suppleness with time in the glass and has plenty of tannins, a seamless, layered mouthfeel, and a great finish. It's clearly in the fresher, elegant style of the vintage, yet this brings a serious, age-worthy style that will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve and drink brilliantly over the following two decades. The blend is 50.3% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 11.7% Cabernet Franc, hitting 13.8% alcohol, with the elevage in 73% new French oak. (04/2024)

The 2021 Haut-Brion is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. After a swirl or two, the nose slowly awakens to reveal notes of cassis, kirsch, and juicy plums, followed by suggestions of dark chocolate, clove oil, iron ore, and garrigue. Medium-bodied, a great intensity of black and red berry flavors gradually grows in the mouth, structured with taut, grainy tannins and a lively line, finishing on a lingering, fragrant earth note. (04/2024)

The 2021 Haut-Brion confirms its fine showing en primeur, cementing its status as one of the wines of the vintage. Its complex bouquet of dark berries and cassis mingled with notions of cigar wrapper and burning embers unfurls in the glass. Full-bodied, deep and velvety, it’s concentrated and layered with a multidimensional core of fruit, sweet tannins and lively acids, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. Reflecting the timeless elegance of Haut-Brions from cooler years, the 2021 will delight Bordeaux purists.

- Yohan Castaing (02/2024)