Wine Advisor
Haut Brion Blanc 2015
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Composed of 69% Sauvignon Blanc and 31% Semillon, the Haut-Brion 2015 Blanc simply sings with melodious notes of ripe Bosc pears, Golden Delicious apple slices, fresh pineapple and honeyed apricots, providing a highly emotive leitmotif of chalk dust, yuzu zest, shaved almonds and beeswax not to mention the faintest tone of pure lime blossom. The medium to full-bodied palate contributes a compelling steeliness to all those incredible layers, plus a fantastic frame of freshness, finishing with multifaceted mineral and citrus accents. The many tightly wound nuances here as well as the built-like-a-brick-house structure promise to greatly reward the patient over the next 25+ years. Trust me, lovers of this style will be kicking themselves if they don’t purchase a few bottles of this amazing vintage while they can.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Haut Brion Blanc is a blend of 69% Sauvignon Blanc and 31% Semillon that was picked between 28 August and 7 September. Like the 2015 La Mission Haut Brion Blanc, the bouquet was quite backward despite rigorous aeration, reluctantly proffering aromas of lime, citrus lemon, gooseberry and a touch of tinned peach. The palate is very well balanced with a fine line of acidity, perhaps even more tensile and precise than the 2015 La Mission Haut-Brion with greengage, citrus lemon and a touch of pineapple furnishing the long finish. This is a beautifully crafted Haut Brion Blanc that will reward those with the nous to cellar it for 10-15 years.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The Haut Brion 2015 Blanc is a blend of 69% Sauvignon Blanc and 31% Sémillon. This is much more expressive on the nose than the La Mission Haut Brion Blanc, with green apples, kiwi fruit, minerals and later gooseberry and tinned peaches. The palate is very well balanced with a fine thread of acidity, complex and nuanced with a fabulous, slightly creamy-textured finish with veins of apricot and tangerine. What a wonderful Haut Brion Blanc this is turning into.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
A 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.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Haut Brion, a blend of 50% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, was picked between 8 September and 5 October, and is matured in the same level of new oak (78%) and IPT (75) as the La Mission. It has a heavenly bouquet that like the La Mission bestows instant gratification - a veritable kaleidoscope of aromas so crystalline that you can pick them out one by one: dark plum, blackcurrant, Kalamata olive and graphite. It is tempting to just nose this all day. The palate has an indescribably stunning balance and like the La Mission, there is a paradoxical sense of intensity married to weightlessness. Everything here is so precise, so pure and yet as it crescendos towards the finish, it offers a profundity that is unmatched across Bordeaux in this vintage. Having had the pleasure of many great wines from this estate in the past - 1945, 1955, 1959, 1961 and 1989 - the 2015 belongs among that pantheon.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Haut-Brion is a blend of 50% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Cabernet Franc picked between 8 September and 5 October. Of course, it showed majestically out of barrel, so pressure was on in bottle. Deep in color, the bouquet is a real showstopper: blackberry, raspberry, sage, black olive and warm gravel...this is a profoundly complex bouquet that is nuanced and beautifully delineated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and ample freshness, but don’t be deceived because this is a very structured Haut-Brion built for the long-term. Remarkably the 14.9% alcohol is completely disguised. It feels incredibly long, and yet instead of fanning out, it shuts down the door on the finish. It is a behemoth of a wine, one that is up there with the legends of the past.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2015 Haut-Brion Blanc does not quite deliver the same complexity as the Domaine de Chevalier Blanc or the La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc, but it gradually opens to reveal attractive peach skin, marzipan and orange pith scents that feel pure and clean. The fresh, crisp palate is very well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, supremely well integrated oak and a persistent orange zest and apricot-tinged finish. This just oozes class and sophistication. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
The is a creamy and enticing Haut-Brion Blanc showing cream, cooked-apple, lemon and mineral aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, layered and soft with silky tannins. A long and bright aftertaste. Energetic and focused. Drink now.
About the Producer
Haut-Brion has long produced the most prestigious Graves Blanc, although it faced strong competition from its neighbour La Mission Haut-Brion, which had been producing its own white wines under the Laville Haut-Brion label until 2009, when it was rebranded as La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc (both estates are under the same ownership). With very small production since the first vintage in 1916, La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc has always been a wine of considerable strength and longevity; its rarity, and the fact that it is the only white wine produced by a first growth in the Graves, makes it highly sought after by collectors. The estate's first growth status does not include white wines and it remains unclassified. Of the 52 hectares planted on the estate, only 2.9 are white: 53% Sémillon and 47% Sauvignon Blanc. (There are also a few rows of Sauvignon Blanc today, but they were not planted in 1989). They are planted on a 27m high hillock opposite the château. The soil is very deep gravel, on a clay subsoil. There is less clay than in Lamena and a different mix of varieties, with much more Sauvignon Blanc in Haut-Brion. The whole estate is located within the city limits of Bordeaux and therefore benefits from a warmer microclimate. Yields range from 25-40 litres/ha. Harvesting is carried out by hand, at maximum ripeness, so that the wines vary from 13% to 14% alcohol. Sorting takes place in the vineyard and the grapes are pneumatically pressed in whole bunches with no skin contact. Fermentation was carried out in oak barrels with native yeasts, but malolactic fermentation was prevented. The wines were decanted every three or four months and aged for 10 to 12 months, with very little stirring of the lees. In the 1980s it was common for wines to be aged entirely in new oak barrels, but today this percentage is around 50%. Production varies from 5,500 to 8,500 bottles. In 2000, the British critic Tom Cannavan enthused: "The nose has a wax and wet wool character, very buttery, with a gorgeous weight of fruit and little floral notes in the peaches, vanilla and nuts. Wonderful fruit ripeness gives a sweet impression, lots of oranges and lush apricots ...... A long, very concentrated and pure finish. Recently, American critic Jeff Leve reported on the 2010 vertical tasting, noting that the 1989 "opens with freshly picked flowers, honey, caramel, grass, lemon and lime aromas. Accompanied by a rich, polished fruit texture, the wine finishes with a blend of citrus flavours".
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