chateau haut bailly cru classe pessac leognan

Château Haut Bailly

Château Haut Bailly, Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan, 2016

Name: Château Haut Bailly, Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan
Brand: Château Haut Bailly
Price: 615.53 GBP

99/100

Inside Bordeaux

100/100

The Wine Independent

Available Vintages

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in bond

Broking

2016
6x75cl
DP
£615.53

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

Veronique Sander's Haut Bailly has become a little divisive in recent years. The purists really admire the finesse and structure, but others have found some wines a bit hard work. Haut Bailly behaves like a mini Haut Brion - it is all tightly wound and reserved when tasted from barrel, but with bottle age, this blossoms and grows in stature. 2016 seemed to convert some detractors to devotees. Yes this is still fine boned, mineral and classic, but there's a little bit more make-up, a bit more gloss and polish that makes this appealing to a wider audience. Notes of roses, graphite and fine dark fruits leap from the glass - this is more expressive than usual. On the palate there are swathes of silky, refined fruit, raspberry liqueur, a touch of spice and gravelly minerality. This is very smart and serious. The tannins are mouth coating and powerful and are laced with persistent cranberries and lingonberries. Excellent! 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.

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Provenance in fine wine

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Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

100/100

Jane Anson,

The Wine Independent

To kick off the 50 year retrospective of Haut-Bailly, we began with this exceptional 2016 (we had also tried the fragrant and nuanced 2019 in the tasting room). Still concentrated and powerful, its structure and poise is a clear reminder that the vintage sets the bar as one of the greatest Haut-Baillys in recent history. Fabulous wine, with layers of black olive paste, blueberry fruit, crayon, cigar box, luscious but still reserved, will go for decades. Harvest September 26 to October 18. Denis Dubourdieu's last year as consultant, Gabriel Vialard winemaker, Véronique Sanders director, 55% new oak for ageing.

drinking window 2025 - 2045

date of review 06/2025

99/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Remains fairly closed at eight years old, with a clear and muscular tannic frame, almost more different in character from the 2015 than they were in the early years, with the 2015 clearly getting to its drinking window more quickly. This one is exceptional quality, reserved and brooding, but with whispers of gunsmoke and violet flowers, and a ton of blueberry and blackberry fruit, juicy and drawn out, laced with pencil lead and slate. You need patience, but it is shaping up to be among the greatest vintages of the property. Harvest September 26 to October 18. Denis Dubourdieu's last year as consultant, Gabriel Vialard winemaker.

drinking window 2028 - 2050

date of review 09/2024

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abv:

13.5%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.