2018 Château Haut-Bailly, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
5% Cabernet Franc completes the blend, co-fermented with Petit Verdot. A yield of 21hl/ha.
The first vintage under Chris Wilmers, succeeding his father, Bob. A brilliant Haut-Bailly, living up to its En Primeur promise, packed with ripe, rippling black and red berry fruit and a wonderful velvety texture. It was still extremely young, more closed than it was during En Primeur, but packed with layers of brilliance, saline quality on the finish, with a tight slate grip slowing everything down.
Drink 2028 - 2045
Jane Anson, Decanter.com (July 2020)
Tasted at the Haut-Bailly vertical at the château.
The 2018 Haut-Bailly replicated its showing in my in-bottle tastings. Wonderful violet and iris aromas burst from the glass with ample black fruit. The palate is beautifully balanced, silky smooth with a sumptuous, quite precocious finish. It just envelops the senses and leaves them gagging for more...but best wait a few years.
Drink 2026 - 2050
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2022)
The 2018 Haut-Bailly soars out of the glass, showing magnificent poise that only grows with time. Sweet, perfumed aromatics, silky tannins and mid-weight structure add to its considerable allure. Ripe red berry fruit, spice, blood orange, liquorice, cedar, tobacco and menthol are all woven together in an effortless, classy Haut-Bailly that delivers the goods. I suppose the 2018 doesn't quite have the explosive energy of the very best years, but it more than makes up for that with its sensual, seductive personality.
Drink 2028 - 2048
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (March 2021)
Full bottle 1,351 g. ‘A year of extremes’, writes Véronique Sanders, ‘the excessive rainfall of winter and spring followed by drought and a long sunny summer’. Severe mildew pressure from June to early August resulted in a small crop but September and October were perfect for ripening and harvest. 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc, harvested from 17 September to 9 October. Sixteen months in French oak, of which 50% new. Fined with egg whites. I can’t help noticing the silky, long cork here.
Dark-like black-cherry skins, opaque core. There’s depth, richness, and a biscuity spice over the black fruit, but it smells intense and mellow. Rich, deep and chewy. A big wine firmly structured by the tannins but polished and fully balanced for a long life, even if the acidity seems quite modest. It opens up in the glass and flows across the palate despite its depth and full body—long, dry finish with an aftertaste of 70% dark chocolate – i.e. no unwanted sweetness.
Drink 2028 - 2040
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com (February 2021)
The 2018 Haut-Bailly is blended with 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot and 5% Cabernet Franc, and it has 14.4% alcohol.
Deep garnet-purple coloured, it needs a little coaxing to unlock a powerhouse of black fruit preserves, offering notes of blackberry pie, crème de cassis and black cherry compote, giving way to nuances of Chinese five spice, camphor, chocolate box and liquorice with a touch of crushed rocks. The medium to full-bodied palate is jam-packed with plush, textured, rich black fruits, supported by a lively backbone, and finishes long and spicy. It is decadently tempting to drink now, but give it five years in bottle to begin to see its full glory, while it should continue to transform for a further 20 years or more in cellar.
Drink 2026 - 2046
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (March 2021)
Tiny production, 21 hectoliters per hectare.
Complex and expressive nose, offering red and dark fruit, spices and pepper with wood and mushroom undertones. Fresh mussel shell and a hint of ink, too. Full-bodied with a fine texture and great balance between the acidity and the controlled, tannic structure. Very long finish. Goes on and on.
Try after 2025
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2022)
I seriously considered putting one more point on the 2018 Château Haut-Bailly, and for all practical purposes, it's as good as it gets. Based on 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, it has a majestic, full-bodied, multi-dimensional profile as well as a blockbuster bouquet of currants, chocolate-covered cherries, iron, tapenade, and smoked tobacco. It has a sunny, exuberant, uber-sexy style, yet it's not over the top, and it has perfect ripeness (not overripe or underripe), beautiful tannins, and flawless overall balance. It's approachable today yet should hit maturity in another 4-5 years and have a broad 30-40 years of prime drinking window.
Drink 2027 - 2058
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (October 2023)
About this WINE
Chateau Haut-Bailly
Château Haut-Bailly is a Graves Cru Classé estate that has really hit form in the last 5-7 years. Haut-Bailly was bought by the Sanders family in 1955 and was run by Jean Sanders until 1998 when Robert G. Wilmers, an American banker, purchased it. It is located in the commune of Léognan, which is usually more associated with white wine production.
Haut-Bailly has 28 hectares of vineyards which are very well sited on high, gravelly ground just east of Léognan village. The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (65%), Merlot (25%) and Cabernet Franc (10%). It is matured in small oak barriques (50% new) for 15 months and is bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Ch. Haut-Bailly makes small quantities of a rosé from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, preferring to use the single varietal to maintain freshness in the blend. The wine is fermented 1/3 in new oak barrels and 2/3 in stainless steel at 16°C.
Haut-Bailly is renowned for its smoothness and silkiness but, since the mid 1990s, the wines have better depth of fruit as well as more grip, concentration and body. They are now amongst the top echelons of Pessac-Léognan wines.
Pessac-Léognan
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.
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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Description
I seriously considered putting one more point on the 2018 Château Haut-Bailly, and for all practical purposes, it's as good as it gets. Based on 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, it has a majestic, full-bodied, multi-dimensional profile as well as a blockbuster bouquet of currants, chocolate-covered cherries, iron, tapenade, and smoked tobacco. It has a sunny, exuberant, uber-sexy style, yet it's not over the top, and it has perfect ripeness (not overripe or underripe), beautiful tannins, and flawless overall balance. It's approachable today yet should hit maturity in another 4-5 years and have a broad 30-40 years of prime drinking window.
Drink 2027 - 2058
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (October 2023)
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