Château La Mission Haut Brion, Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan, 2023

Name: Château La Mission Haut Brion, Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan
Brand: Château La Mission Haut-Brion
Price: 1110 GBP

Available Vintages

all 1990 1996 1997 1998 2000 2002 2005 2010 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024

justerini & brooks tasting note

Tasted next to Haut Brion, so comparisons are inevitable. We love the 2023 La Mission. At this stage it is perhaps less serious than Haut Brion, but makes up for this with its charm and refinement. Opening with an impressive, deeply mineral bouquet with hints of stones, iris, potpourri and fragrant cassis. Very pure and detailed, vertical but with breath, this fans out with noble flavours and mysterious, deep, dark, mulberry fruit and lovely dry, earthy notes, fine salts and a wonderful precise intensity. A ravishing Mission full of class! 52.7% Merlot, 29.6% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17.7% Cabernet Franc.

critic reviews

96-98/100Lisa Perrotti-Brown,The Wine Independent

A blend of 52.7% Merlot, 29.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 17.7% Cabernet Franc, La Mission Haut-Brion 2023 has a pH of 3.7 and a deep garnet-purple color. It slowly emerges from the glass with fragrant notes of ripe plums, boysenberries, and Morello cherries, opening out to a wonderfully evocative nose of Indian spices, fragrant soil, iron ore, and rose oil. The full-bodied palate is laden with ripe, opulent black fruit and exotic spices layers, lifted by red berry accents and ferrous sparks, framed by velvety tannins and finishing with epic length.

DRINKING WINDOW 2029 - 2050

date of review 05/2024

96/100Jane Anson,Inside Bordeaux

Red roses, powdery chalky tannins, grip and lift, this is savoury, concentrated, full of lift and vibrancy, with layers of lush ripe red and black fruits, with the inky stamp of the Cabernet in the vintage, and the caressing tannins that La Mission does so well. Harvest started early and finished late, through to October 5.

DRINKING WINDOW 2033 - 2048

date of review 05/2024

93-95/100Neal Martin,Vinous

The 2023 La Mission Haut-Brion was picked between September 5 until October 5, a relatively long picking, at 50hL/ha. It has a wonderful bouquet with brightness and verve: very well-defined red and black fruit, a little floral in style, maybe not as rambunctious as recent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with lithe tannins. A perfect line of acidity counterbalances the creamy texture, turning quite plush toward the finish, but it is amazingly well-focused. This is a generous La Mission Haut-Brion that will probably drink earlier than say, the 2022, as winemaker Jean-Philippe Delmas agreed. It’s very fine and very delicious, but I would not place it within the canon of top vintages.

DRINKING WINDOW 2029 - 2060

date of review 04/2024

94-96/100Yohan Castaing,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2023 La Mission Haut-Brion unwinds in the glass to reveal aromas of ripe red fruits, dark wild berries, spring flowers, burning embers and lilac. Medium to full-bodied, rich and concentrated, its layered and textural with a dense core of fruit underpinned by youthfully firm structuring tannins. This blend of 52.7% Merlot, 29.6% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17.7% Cabernet Franc its likely to become fleshier and more enveloping with barrel maturation.

DRINKING WINDOW 2025 - 2055

date of review 04/2024