Haut Bailly 2020

A blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot, the 2020 Haut-Bailly is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs a bit of swirling to coax out notions of black cherry compote, blackcurrant pastilles, and blackberry preserves, giving way to fragrant wafts of violets, dark chocolate, cardamom, and sassafras, with a touch of Indian spices. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in poise, delivering tightly wrapped black fruit, exotic spice and floral layers, with a super-plush texture and seamless acidity, finishing very long with loads of mineral sparks and tons of energy.

The 2020 Haut-Bailly opens in the glass with attractive aromas of cassis, sweet berries, loamy soil, violets and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's a concentrated, rather broad-shouldered wine built around a chassis of firm, powdery tannin that asserts itself on the finish. Haut-Bailly once rivaled Haut-Brion for the title of Pessac's most elegant wine, and I would love to see the team here ease off extraction, but this remains a strong effort that will reward patience. 2030 - 2055

This has incredible power and drive with blackberry, black olive and graphite. It’s full-bodied, yet dynamic and agile, with so much polished and muscular tannin. Yet, it remains in harmony and balance. So much character. The head of the chateau calls it diabolical beauty. 25% less production than the 2019. 52% cabernet sauvignon, 42% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 3% petit verdot.

Ruby violet colour, beautiful glass-staining purple; right up there among the best wines of the vintage. Serious structure and tannic architecture delivered with finesse. Plenty of estate signature also in its depth and poise, showing clarity, purity and precision to the blackcurrant, bilberry, blackberry and pomegrantage fruits, spiced chocolate and bitter aniseed and frangipane on the finish. An upscore from En Primeur. One to savour.

The 2020 is the first wine to be aged in Haut Bailly's new cellar. It is a blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. The harvest was early, from 9th-25th September. Analytically the pH, acidity, tannins and alcohol are similar to the 2010, though in the glass the wine is stylistically quite different. Deep ruby in colour with a fresh nose of cool blackcurrant and dried herbs. The palate is surprisingly soft and forward for this estate, with bright red cherry and plum fruit to the fore. The tannins are still noticeable, but offer a more gentle, crunchy frame. There is a sweet, incense-infused spiciness through to the finishes that bolsters the fruit core and leaves a lingering, silky aftertaste.

Another wine I underrated on release, the 2020 Château Haut-Bailly is just about pure perfection, and whereas the 2018 is closer in style to the 2009, this plays things a little closer to its vest and is reminiscent of the 2010. Full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it nevertheless cuts a focused, precise path across the palate and brings incredible purity in its darker fruits, smoked tobacco, cedar pencil, and Asian spice-driven aromas and flavors. The tannin quality here is off the charts, and this beauty has everything you could want from wine. It needs a solid 4-6 years (if not longer) to hit the early stages of its prime drinking window, and it's going to evolve for 50+ years.

52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot. Cask sample.
Powerful, deep-coloured wine with a considerable tannic core. Mellow fruit provides a suave texture but the pixelated tannins are still palpable. Intense, brooding with lots of extract, the finish warm, the oak just present. Needs time to knit. (JL) 14.3%
Drink 2028 – 2045

(52% CS, 42% M; 14.3% ABV)
Closed, minerally to smell, with a great finesse; full, supple yet fresh, and very fine in tannin, an effortlessly beautiful balance; long and graceful, very Haut-Bailly in style, full of soft, sweet, freshly ripe fruit, long and subtle across the palate, and with wonderful fragrant length. A gloriously complete wine of great class. Power and delicacy, great beauty in a particularly discreet style. First-growth quality and refinement, an illuminating tribute to the splendid new chai. Likely to be accessible early, but offer decades of pleasure. 2028–50+.