Shop Wine

wines

Bright aromas of blackberries, cherries, currants and toasted oak follow through to a full-bodied palate, with chewy tannins. Long and silky. Racy. Best after 2009.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

The 2008 La Mission Haut-Brion has an open, feisty, lively bouquet with blackberry, briary, cedar, black olive and a light seaweed (Japanese nori) aroma. This is wonderful, an intoxicating bouquet. The palate is beautifully balanced with a fine bead of acidity, very focused with good weight and structure. This is a very convincing showing, at the moment more pleasurable than the 2008 Haut-Brion, just so fresh and complex, offering a discrete tertiary, smoke-tinged finish that goes on and on. One of the best 2008s out there. (Tasted at BI Wine & Spirit’s annual 10-Year On tasting).Vinous Media | 96+ VMA muscular wine, with well-defined tannins. The acidity is high, hiding the power and richness of the fruit behind. Then dark tannins come through, with other ripe fruits, finishing with a mineral character.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEA beautiful, high-class effort that offers incredible pleasure, the 2008 Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion is a blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc brought up in a mix of new and used barrels. Ripe black cherries, sweet currants, cigar tobacco, and exotic spices all emerge from this medium to full-bodied effort that has beautiful concentration, sweet tannins, and again, a pleasure-bent, even sexy character that’s a joy to drink. It’s capable of lasting another 30 years or more.Jeb Dunnuck | 95 JDLike a lot of wines in this underrated vintage, the 2008 La Mission was one of the great bargains of recent vintages. Its healthy blue/purple color is followed by aromas of blueberries, black raspberries, licorice, truffles, underbrush and forest floor. The scorched earthy/smoky character of this estate’s terroir has not yet emerged. Medium to full-bodied and concentrated with good acidity, freshness and delineation, this is a big wine for the vintage, but also very classic in its balance of tannin, acidity and extract. It will benefit from another 5-7 years of cellaring and should keep for three decades. The final blend was 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc.Robert Parker | 95 RPElegant and fresh, with beautiful crushed raspberry fruits - proof that 2008 is a vintage where terroir wins out. This all happens on the retro-olfaction: there you are thinking it’s a little under-perfumed for a Mission, but then it kicks back with a smoky swirl through the palate and the aromatics take hold. It’s very good, showing savoury black fruits on the finish and the gentlest hint of cigar box and cedar oak. Drinking Window 2020 - 2036Decanter | 94 DECFascinating aromas of crushed berry, plums, sweet tobacco and stones. Full bodied, with chewy and velvety tannins and a long, long finish. This is very structured and rich with a bright and tangy acidity. Needs time to come together, obviously. Try after 2015.James Suckling | 93 JSTangy and lightly firm, with cherry pit, pomegranate and blackberry notes, followed by sage and tobacco. There’s nice focus, with a tarry hint for added length on the finish. Rather tight now, with the edgy feel holding sway, but this should settle into itself nicely enough. Best from 2013 through 2018. 5,300 cases made.Wine Spectator | 90 WS

The 2015 Haut Brion is a perfect wine that couldn’t be any better and is certainly at the top of this great vintage. A blend of 50% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the balance Cabernet Franc, this full-bodied, concentrated, backward, yet sensationally pure 2015 boast knockout notes of blackcurrants, smoked tobacco, ground herbs, and graphite, with a terrific damp earth/minerality quality emerging with time in the glass. Straight, focused, and built like a skyscraper, with a stacked mid-palate, forget bottles for 7-8 years and enjoy over the following three to four decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDA blend of 50% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2015 Haut-Brion is reticent to begin, languidly revealing crushed black cherries, ripe black plums and wild blueberries with sparks of cinnamon stick, cloves, nutmeg, espresso, unsmoked cigars, tapenade, crushed rocks and lavender. The full-bodied palate possesses wonderfully complementary contrasts of bold black and blue fruit richness and delicately nuanced cherry fruit, baking spices and floral accents, strutting ripe, finely pixelated tannins and seamless acidity that is placed firmly in the background, finishing very long and with plenty of attitude. This impeccably poised, exquisitely perfumed 2015 Haut-Brion possesses the most alluring yet seemingly effortless beauty. While it bears only a passing resemblance in its opulent personality to the now legendary 1989, like that vintage the 2015 cannot fail to hedonically satiate and intellectually edify all lovers of great Bordeaux who drink it. What’s more, it also has the blue-blooded tenaciousness to remain this jaw-droppingly impressive, throughout its many guises over time, and for a very, very long time.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPRich and sumptuous on the palate with huge depth of fruit yet reined in by fresh acidity, with masses of tight tannins. It’s already appealing to drink (as are many 2015s) this really needs a decade or more to allow it to fully develop. The 15% alcohol is carried so easily here, with the crushed rock, sage, lavender and warm earth characters making it a standout First growth. Rated as a 100-point wine by many influential judges and undoubtedly one of the wines of the vintage. Drinking Window 2024 - 2060.Decanter | 99 DECA brick house of a wine, loaded with roasted fig, warmed currant compote and plum reduction flavors that are as broad as they are deep, carried by warm tar, ganache and smoldering bay leaf and charcoal notes. A swath of tobacco through the finish pulls everything together and ties it up with a bow of roasted mesquite. The core shows lean, muscular strength in spades. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2025 through 2045. 11,250 cases made.Wine Spectator | 98 WSA huge, dramatic wine, the 2015 Haut-Brion is magnificent. Vertical in its construction and towering in its reach, the 2015 is going to need a good decade-plus to even start becoming approachable, as it needs to lose baby fat and develop the full range of its aromatics. Even at this early stage, though, it is wonderfully complete and positively stunning.Antonio Galloni | 98 AGThis is all about seduction and beauty with tobacco, berries, tea and wet earth. Full-bodied, round and sexy. Love the polished and beautiful tannins. Racy and refined. Try in 2023.James Suckling | 98 JSDirect and concentrated, this wine is powered by tannins and a firm texture. Dense, it has the potential for plenty of fruit as it matures. That will take time, because this impressive wine is powered by its structure. Wait until 2028. Wine Enthusiast | 97 WE

Really fresh and linear with graphite, tar, berry and stone aromas and flavors. Medium and fine on the palate showing no heat or over-maturity. Attractive tannins at the end. 55.9% merlot, 35.4% cabernet sauvignon and 8.7% cabernet franc.James Suckling | 94-95 JSSuper aromatic and fragrant, dark black berries and perfumed touches with minty freshness and chocolate. Supple and generous, really quite fruity and lively but also quite tannic. A nicely weighted palate with concentrated blackcurrant and strawberry fruits with freshly picked mint, liquorice spice and clove. You can feel the heat of the vintage in the depth and concentration of the fruit but there’s no overt heaviness and nothing harsh here. Tannins are nicely supportive and fleshy giving some bounce and fun to the palate. Juicy and bright, mouthwatering but cool and crunchy too. Really lovely texture and intensity. Maybe not so refined and delicate, but wow this gives a lot of flavour and punch while keeping the juiciness. 3.9pH.Decanter | 93 DECThe 2022 La Chapelle de La Mission Haut Brion is a powerful, dense wine, almost shockingly so. Gravel, spice, leather, menthol and dried flowers give the 2022 tons of aromatic presence to play off a core of dark, red-toned fruit. I don’t recall tasting a Chapelle with this much tannin in recent times, going back to the 2010. Readers will find a wine that delivers immense pleasure, though and tons of character.Vinous Media | 91-93 VMThe 2022 La Chapelle De La Mission Haut-Brion is based on 56% Merlot, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc. A red and black-fruited, forward, beautifully textured second wine, it’s medium to full-bodied and offers ripe red and black fruits, notes of leafy herbs, flowers, and scorched earth, supple tannins, and outstanding length.Jeb Dunnuck | 91-93 JDA blend of 55.9% Merlot, 35.4% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Cabernet Franc, the 2022 La Chapelle de la Mission Haut-Brion offers aromas of dark berries, licorice, graphite, bell pepper and pencil shavings. It’s medium to full-bodied, fleshy and nicely balanced with a tense, fresh and penetrating finish.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 90-92 RPThe 2022 La Chapelle de la Mission Haut-Brion is composed of 55.9% Merlot, 35.4% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 8.7% Cabernet Franc aging in 19.8% new oak. Deep garnet-purple in color, it comes barreling out of the glass with bold notions of baked black plums, chocolate-covered cherries, and boysenberries, leading to wafts of menthol, Indian spices, and fragrant soil. The medium to full-bodied palate is packed with expressive black and blue fruits, supported by plush tannins and just enough freshness, finishing with a spicy lift.The Wine Independent | 90-92 TWI