Chateau Haut-Beausejour 2015
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This wine is spicy, ripe and gently textured. With hints of stalkiness, the black currant fruits are light and crisp with a squeeze of blackberry juice coming through. It is more about fruit than structure.
Barrel Sample -
James Suckling
A chewy and rich red with plum and walnut aromas and flavors. Full body. Flavorful finish. Salty aftertaste.
Barrel Sample:89-90 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Haut-Beauséjour is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 45% Merlot. It has a tightly wound, slightly subdued bouquet that just feels a little static in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp, quite fine tannin, well balanced and detailed with truffle and cedar-infused black fruit. It might lack the substance of its counterparts south in Pauillac, yet I still consider this to be a well-crafted wine that should offer a decade of pleasure.
Barrel Sample:88-90
Other Vintages
2017-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.