2019 Château Haut-Bailly, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
Harvest September 23 to October 10. Axel Marchal and Valerie Lavigne consultants, Gabriel Vialard winemaker, Veronique Sanders director and CEO.
I love the depth of the palate. This is delicious with a scrape of tannins that are ripe and powerful without straying over the line into heavy. I love the balance of this 2019, sculpted cassis and bilberry fruits, appealingly finessed and full of estate signature.
Drink 2026 - 2045
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (July 2024)
Tasted at the Haut-Bailly vertical at the château.
The 2019 Haut-Bailly had just been bottled before my visit. This is better than the 2018 with brilliant delineation on the nose and newfound purity. The palate is silky smooth with enormous depth, wonderful concentration and outstanding precision towards the finish with layers of lightly spiced black fruit. This is Fabulous with a capital "F".
Drink 2027 - 2065
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2022)
The 2019 Haut-Bailly is a huge, powerful wine. This warm vintage has plenty of richness, but there is a ton of tannin, too. In most warmer years, Haut-Bailly can be a real charmer upfront, but in 2019, it's all about somber dark fruit, tannin, and structure. A wine of breadth and power, Haut-Bailly will need many years in the cellar to truly blossom. It's unquestionably a big wine with a brilliant future. Bright aromatics lend freshness as the 2019 continues to open with air.
Drink 2029 - 2059
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (February 2022)
56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot. Barrel sample.
Well within itself, but complex, compelling, and racy. Cool, fresh, and reserved on the nose but with a density of dark fruit apparent. Lively, vibrant palate. The fruit is juicy, pure, and substantial, and the abundant tannins are lithe and long. Dry, clean, minerally finish. Good persistence and drive.
Drink 2027 - 2045
James Lawther MW, JancisRobinson.com (June 2020)
The 2019 Haut-Bailly unwinds in the glass with complex aromas of dark berries, bay leaf, loamy soil and cigar wrapper, framed by a discreet patina of new oak. Full-bodied, velvety and elegantly muscular, it's powerful and concentrated, with lively acids and an abundance of ripe but youthfully assertive structuring tannin that will demand some patience.
Drink 209 - 2065
William Kelley, Wine Advocate (April 2022)
56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petit Verdot.
Extremely aromatic, with incredible wet-earth, bark, stone and graphite notes on the nose, then changing to violets, blackberries and blackcurrants. Full-bodied, yet so linear and fine, with titanium tannins that go on so long. It builds and builds, then just rolls around the palate through the endless finish. Real Bordeaux here. Exceptional.
Better after 2029
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (December 2022)
A floral bouquet on the nose, soft but deep with such clarity and such a beautiful vivid pink-red colour in the glass, too. The texture here is striking, smooth and mouth filling with intensity but so well presented, precise, fine and amazingly detailed. The word for 2019 is energy, which has it in abundance; it’s vibrant and alive in the mouth with such brightness. Mouthwatering acidity is set against a chalky texture, so you get a full mouthfeel without any heaviness—great structure and balance. You could almost drink this now to enjoy the immediate enjoyment but a recent tasting of the 2009 suggests this has a very long life ahead. A wine you can fall in love with!
Drink 2024 - 2047
Georgina Hindle, Decanter.com (January 2022)
The 2019 Château Haut-Bailly is more restrained and elegant, which is the vintage. Still vivid purple-hued with pure and vibrant notes of red and black fruit, sandalwood, minty herbs, and flowers, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a seamless, layered, elegant mouthfeel, undeniable minerality, and a gorgeous finish. This classy, utterly classic Haut-Bailly will continue to evolve gracefully for another 30+ years.
Drink 2023 - 2054
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.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
If the second wine, Haut Bailly II, impresses, following it immediately with this wine provides the context. All the notes of the impressive second wine are there, but this is more plush and luxurious, with other notes of tobacco and crème de café. If the 2018 was perhaps on the dense side, there are no doubts this year: this is pure class, intense yet composed, with a glint of mineral tannin running through it all.
Berry Bros. & Rudd
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