1998 Château Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

1998 Château Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

Product: 19981011247
 
1998 Château Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

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Description

Agreeably approachable, with plump, plummy fruit aromas and accents of blackberry, spice and smoke. The texture is rich and round, with a supple, fleshy feel and suave tannins supporting the wine without astringency. The wine drinks well now while still seeming youthful and fresh, and there is enough substance to suggest that it will age admirably for years to come. There is a strong dominance of Merlot in the blend (59%), and the wine aged in 77% new oak casks until bottling in August of 2000.

Drink 2023 - 2045

Charles Curtis MW, Decanter.com (July 2023)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous96/100

The 1998 Haut Brion has long been a favourite vintage of mine and has been consumed with pleasure several times. Now, at 20 years of age, I feel it is one step ahead of the 1998 La Mission: there is great fruit intensity with almost precocious blackberry, raspberry coulis, pastilles, tobacco and hints of olive. It has exquisite delineation and focus.

The palate is medium-bodied and fuller in the mouth than the La Mission: deeper fruit (blackberry, mulberry and a touch of strawberry) intermingling with sage, cedar and a touch of hung game. It is not quite as precocious or glossy on the finish as I remember previous bottles, but it is certainly turning into one of the finest wines of this vintage. Tasted at the château.

Drink 2018 - 2045

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (May 2018)

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Jancis Robinson MW19/20

Sumptuous wine made from 60% Merlot served at the château. Mellow, suave, long and polished. Glorious bottle. Great balance. Saw me nicely on to the Bordeaux-Carcassonne train that afternoon.

Drink 2010 - 2025

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (August 2015)

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Wine Advocate99/100

Still incredibly youthful and sporting a lot of fruit, the deep garnet-brick coloured 1998 Haut-Brion sashays out of the glass with flamboyant red and black fruits, followed by a train of cassis, blueberry pie and chocolate box notions plus accents of iron ore, dried lavender and underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is wonderfully rich and decadently seductive in its generosity of fruit and velvety texture, offering seamless freshness and finishing with epic length and compelling minerality. Oh so delicious right now, with careful cellaring it should continue to excite through 2045 and beyond.

Drink 2018 - 2045

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate (May 2018)

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James Suckling99/100

This is really classic in style with incredible depth and power. Muscular and amazing, it is full-bodied yet tight and agile. So complex. It shows iodine, oyster, stone, and mint aromas and flavors. It's rich and flavorful and at the same time fresh and racy. A modern classic. 

Drink or hold. Decant this one or two hours in advance.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (March 2012)

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Robert Parker96/100

As reported over the last two years, this is a prodigious Haut-Brion. It exhibits a dense ruby/purple colour in addition to a tight, but incredibly promising nose of smoke, earth, minerals, lead pencil, black currants, cherries, and spice. This full-bodied wine unfolds slowly, but convincingly on the palate, revealing a rich, multi-tiered, stunningly pure, symmetrical style with wonderful sweetness, ripe tannin, and a finish that lasts for nearly 45 seconds. It tastes like liquid nobility. 

Anticipated maturity: 2008 - 2035

Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (April 2001)

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Decanter96/100

Agreeably approachable, with plump, plummy fruit aromas and accents of blackberry, spice and smoke. The texture is rich and round, with a supple, fleshy feel and suave tannins supporting the wine without astringency. The wine drinks well now while still seeming youthful and fresh, and there is enough substance to suggest that it will age admirably for years to come. There is a strong dominance of Merlot in the blend (59%), and the wine aged in 77% new oak casks until bottling in August of 2000.

Drink 2023 - 2045

Charles Curtis MW, Decanter.com (July 2023)

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Stephen Tanzer94+/100

Good medium ruby. Aristocratic, highly complex nose hints at plum, roast coffee, leather, grilled nuts, tobacco and earth. A bit reticent today but already offers an uncanny amalgamation of density and vinosity. A very suave, subtle wine that finishes with creamy, sweet tannins and terrific grip and length. Was there a more consistently outstanding first growth through the decade of the '90s?

Enologist and chef de culture Jean-Philippe Masclet compares the 2000 Haut-Brion to the 1990. "But the 2000 is fresher, like '98, while the '00 is more surmuri Still, the 2000 has the tannic sweetness of a vin du soleil." The millennial vintage featured superripe merlot with grape sugars in the 13.5%-14% range; the cabernet sauvignon averaged 12.5%, which Masclef told me was the highest ever for Haut-Brion. 

While the 2000 is a wine of obvious power, Haut-Brion is always difficult to taste at this early stage, and it is not yet apparent to this taster that the new vintage will surpass this estate compelling '98. Masclet agreed that they seem more or less equal in quality, but said he preferred the 2000 La Mission to the '98.

Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com (May 2001)

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About this WINE

Chateau Haut-Brion

Chateau Haut-Brion

The only property from outside the Médoc to be included in the 1855 Classification, Haut-Brion’s viticultural history can be traced back further than its Médoc First Growth counterparts.  Samuel Pepys even mentions it in his diaries.  Situated in what is now Pessac-Léognan, the property finds itself now in the suburbs of the ever-encroaching city of Bordeaux

After falling into a state of disrepair the estate was purchased in 1935 by Clarence Dillon, an American financier, since when it has enjoyed a steady and continual resurgence to a position of pre-eminence.  Dillon’s great-grandson, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, now runs the estate, but a key influence in the reputation which Haut-Brion enjoys today is the Delmas family.  George Delmas was manager and wine-maker until 1960, when his son Jean-Bernard took over. Jean- Bernard was a visionary figure, responsible for a number of important innovations, and on his retirement in 2003 his son Jean-Philippe took over as Directeur Générale.

The vineyard is planted to 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc. A stunning white wine is also made, from a part of the vineyard which is 63% Semillon and 37% Sauvignon Blanc. Production is smaller than at the other First Growth Wines, totalling about 20,000 cases, shared between the Grand Vin and a second wine, formerly called Bahans-Haut-Brion but changed in 2007 to Clarence de Haut-Brion in recognition of Clarence Dillon. Production of Haut Brion Blanc is minute, less than 800 cases in most years. 

Beginning with the 2009 vintage a new white wine was introduced in the place of Clarence: La Clarté de Haut-Brion, the offspring of Domaine Clarence Dillon's two prestigious white wines: Château Haut-Brion Blanc and Château La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc.

Fermentation of the red wines takes place in stainless steel vats, after which the wine will spend 22 months, sometimes more, in new oak barrels before being bottled unfiltered.  For the white wine fermentation takes place in new oak barrels, after which the wine spends a further year to 15 months on its lees in barrel before bottling.  The white wine is truly sensational, equivalent in class to a top-flight White Burgundy Grand Cru, but its scarcity means that it is rarely seen.

The red wine is no less extraordinary; at its best it displays text-book Graves characteristics of cigar-box, curranty fruit, earth, smoky spice and cassis. The high Merlot content, compared to the Médoc First Growths, gives it a voluptuous edge, but does not in any way detract from its ability to age.

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Pessac-Leognan

Pessac-Leognan

In 1986 a new communal district was created within Graves, in Bordeaux,  based on the districts of Pessac and Léognan, the first of which lies within the suburbs of the city. Essentially this came about through pressure from Pessac-Léognan vignerons, who wished to disassociate themselves from growers with predominately sandy soils further south in Graves.

Pessac-Léognan has the best soils of the region, very similar to those of the Médoc, although the depth of gravel is more variable, and contains all the classed growths of the region. Some of its great names, including Ch. Haut-Brion, even sit serenely and resolutely in Bordeaux's southern urban sprawl.

The climate is milder than to the north of the city and the harvest can occur up to two weeks earlier. This gives the best wines a heady, rich and almost savoury character, laced with notes of tobacco, spice and leather. Further south, the soil is sandier with more clay, and the wines are lighter, fruity and suitable for earlier drinking.

Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Haut-Brion, Ch. la Mission Haut-Brion, Ch. Pape Clément, Ch Haut-Bailly, Domaine de Chevalier, Ch. Larrivet-Haut-Brion, Ch. Carmes Haut-Brion, Ch. La Garde, Villa Bel-Air.

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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