Chateau Haut-Brion (1.5 Liter Futures Pre-Sale) 2021

Professional Ratings

• 98 James Suckling
  A very structured young Haut-Brion with blackberry, blackcurrant, black-olive and mushroom character. Medium to full-bodied with a driving balance of firm and ripe tannins and gorgeous fruit.
  Barrel Sample: 97-98
• 97 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2021 Haut-Brion confirms its fine showing en primeur, cementing its status as one of the wines of the vintage. Its complex bouquet of dark berries and cassis mingled with notions of cigar wrapper and burning embers unfurls in the glass. Full-bodied, deep and velvety, it’s concentrated and layered with a multidimensional core of fruit, sweet tannins and lively acids, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. Reflecting the timeless elegance of Haut-Brions from cooler years, the 2021 will delight Bordeaux purists.
• 97 Decanter
  One of the absolute stand out wines on 2021 with an electric appeal almost unrivalled in the vintage. Blackcurrant leaf, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, rose petals, sweet cherries and bramble fruits on the nose. Incredibly lively and energetic on the palate with a burst of sharp, sweet and sour fruits that just fills the mouth coated by chalk, slate and pencil lead mineral tannins that give a intensity while the fruit persistency lingers above and through to the long finish. Such delicacy yet multi-layered and full of concentration, clear ripeness and power, though delivered with suaveness and style. Tannins are firm and robust, mouthfilling, no doubt about that, but they give the structure and frame to the plush and plump fruit which also has such a crystalline purity to it. I love the intensity and also these spicy bitter dark chocolate and liquorice elements on the finish which give nuance.
  Barrel Sample: 97
• 94 Jeb Dunnuck
  In comparison to its sibling La Mission Haut-Brion, the 2021 Château Haut-Brion is firmer and much more masculine, with an impressive, almost austere style in its smoky red and black fruits, salted meats, graphite, tobacco, and crushed stone-driven aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and elegant on the palate, it picks up density and suppleness with time in the glass and has plenty of tannins, a seamless, layered mouthfeel, and a great finish. It's clearly in the fresher, elegant style of the vintage, yet this brings a serious, age-worthy style that will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve and drink brilliantly over the following two decades. The blend is 50.3% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 11.7% Cabernet Franc, hitting 13.8% alcohol, with the elevage in 73% new French oak.
  Rating: 94+