Château Haut Brion, 1er Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan, 2024
Produced from a blend of 47.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37.5% Merlot and 15.3% Cabernet Franc, the Haut Brion 2024 is less guarded than usual revealing wonderful aromas of peonies and roses, mingling with pure cassis and fine strawberries, underscored by mineral notes of crushed rocks. The palate exhibits remarkable control and class, offering flavours of redcurrant and sour cherry alongside orange pith and peony, violet and clove, rose petal and cigar box, with subtle hints of damp earth and brambles. This glorious core of fruit is supported by unimpeachable, lacy tannins that grip the mouth, leading to long, noble flavours that tease the palate with a beautiful salinity and hints of nutmeg. Slightly more demonstrative than usual, but unquestionably a wine of First Growth pedigree.
critic reviews
Deep garnet-purple colored. Needs a lot of shaking to wake up scents of crushed black currants, red currant jelly, and boysenberries, followed by hints of Sichuan pepper, garrigue, and crushed rocks. The medium-bodied palate has a firm texture of ripe, fine-grained tannins and great freshness framing the tightly wound, mineral-laced fruits, finishing on a lingering ferrous note.
The 2024 Haut-Brion, which contains more Cabernet Franc this year from a high-performing vat, has an altogether more polished, powerful and fruit-driven bouquet than La Mission at the moment. Black and blue fruit, black olive and subtle sea spray scents emerge with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied, vibrant and focused, with fine tannins and an engaging underlying sapidity coming through with more weight and sustain on the finish. This is a very capable Haut-Brion that will not kowtow to the challenges of the 2024 season—rather, it seems to relish them.
Medium to full intensity, takes its time to open, this is carefully built, slow and steady in its expression, textured, restrained, cocoa bean, espresso, redcurrant, orchard, sage, bilberry. Very much a classical style of Haut-Brion that will I am sure give great pleasure after a decade in bottle - not as monumental as some, but don't count this out - there are all the bones of this exceptional wine, and the tannic architecture will widen over ageing. 1.7% press, 75% new oak, 26hl/h yield, Jean-Pierre Masclef technical director and Jean-Pierre Delmas estate director.
The 2024 Haut-Brion is more perfumed than La Mission Haut-Brion, unfurling in the glass with aromas of raspberries, cassis, dark berries and spices mingled with elegantly floral touches. Medium to full-bodied, layered and sappy, it has a firm texture and powdery tannins, leading to a long, spicy and lead pencil-inflected finish. Composed of 47.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37.5% Merlot and 15.3% Cabernet Franc, this vintage features one of the highest proportions of Cabernet Franc in recent yearscomparable to vintages such as 1993, 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2020and should gain harmony with the elevage. In the context of the vintage, this is a notable success, owing in large part to Haut-Brions intramural position in Pessac, where the estates terroir benefits from slightly warmer average temperatures than properties located outside the city, contributing to more complete ripening of the grapes.
product details
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