| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pessac-Léognan |
| Colour | White |
| Type | Still |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Haut Brion
It is always interesting to taste this wine next to its stablemate, Laville Haut-Brion. While Laville has 80% Semillon in it, giving it more fat and concentration, Haut-Brion is 55% Sauvignon Blanc and 45% Semillon. This is a crisp yet powerful wine, full-bodied, with great minerality and a subtle smokiness intermixed with hints of quince, white currant, orange skin, and lemon custard. Long, rich, and tightly knit, with good acidity and no evidence of any oak whatsoever despite the use of 100% new French oak, this wine is set for a long life as well. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2035.
Tasted at Haut Brion. Lucid greeny/gold tinge. An elegant nose of citrus fruits, acacia honey and pineapple. Good delineation. Very concentrated palate but much more elegant and refined than other vintages. Very good acidity, zesty, floral, white peach and a touch of coconut. Not an explosive Haut Brion Blanc. Good complexity and length. Superb. Tasted April 2007.
44% Sémillon, 56% Sauvignon Blanc.
Smells fatter and oilier than Laville. Big and bold and mineral and already more open. Dense and fine. Very good racy acidity but an overlay of fumé fruit - definite smokiness and minerals. Sturdy, beefy, even with a hint of oak in evidence. Blind one could confuse this with some other oaked Sauvignon/Sémillons even if this may have more finesse and, definitely, more ageing potential. This apparently has less Sémillon than usual.
Good full yellow with green highlights. Wonderfully complex but reticent nose offers peach, flowers, spices and hints of exotic fruits. Silky, fat and large-scaled, with wonderfully ripe but delineated flavors of mirabelle, ginger and honey. The sweet, very long finish saturates the palate with honey and nut flavors. Compelling wine, but I still give a slight edge to the 2004
This is a strong vintage for Bordeaux’s dry white wines, probably as good or better than 2005. Crisp acidity combined with outstanding concentration and the fact that most of the white grapes were harvested before the rains began in mid-September resulted in an impressive group of wines.
