Château La Mission Haut Brion, Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan, 2023
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
The 2023 La Mission Haut-Brion, which according to Jean-Philippe Delmas contains the highest contribution of Cabernet Franc ever (17%), has closed up a little since bottling, yet it gradually unfolds with mainly black fruit, black olive, touches of gravel and tobacco in the background. Quite complex, yet discrete. The palate is framed by edgy but finely chiselled tannins. Lovely balance and focus, quite strict and linear with just the right amount of grip on the finish. Sophisticated and persistent, this is a superb La Mission Haut-Brion.
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.
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.
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.