Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc (Futures Pre-Sale) 2021
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Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine - Decanter
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Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
A lovely pale yellow color, with green glints. The nose is concentrated with fruity scents of citrus, mango and pineapple. Swirling reveals concentration and depth of aromas. On the first taste, the wine is rich, fresh, wide and taut all at once. It develops and is full, with lots of flavor and no heaviness. At times Sauvignon in exuberance, sometimes Sémillon in fleshiness and careful structure. This Haut-Brion is ultimately a superb harmony of aromas and taste, between Sauvignon and Sémillon, which have given us their very best thanks to the conditions of this vintage.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A complex, thought-provoking white. Vibrant and exciting with green herbs, stones and hints of aniseed and wet sea weed. Sea salt, too. It’s full-bodied and tight on the palate and rather shy. But then it takes off at the end and accelerates. Phenolic, with fine tannins. Iron. Oyster shell.
Barrel Sample: 98-99 -
Wine Enthusiast
This is a magnificent wine. It is the epitome of great white Bordeaux. Its texture and spice give an alluring touch to the lime, apricot and kiwi flavors that come through the toast. This is a classic.
Barrel Sample: 97-99 -
Decanter
Lemongrass, green apple, apricot, creamy peach and lime zest. A little bit closed also on the nose compared to La Mission at this stage, takes its time to expand. Svelte and sleek delivering a punch of flavour, fleshy and ample, but also refined and finessed. Silky and understated, the elements gliding across the tongue from start to finish in a dedicated drive, all in perfect harmony and balance. Honeyed lemon, crisp apple, peach and grapefruit add flavour nuance while the texture is clean and pure. It's not giving as much openness and approachability as the Mission at this stage, being more muscular and tight, but this has extreme star quality, a mouthwatering juiciness, crystalline purity and such long flavour. Absolutely compelling.
Barrel Sample: 97 -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Château Haut-Brion Blanc is another vibrant, racy white in the vintage. White grapefruit, crushed citrus, and some obvious mineral and rocky nuances define the nose, and it's medium-bodied, with a racy, chiseled style that's going to demand bottle age.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Blanc is a standout example of what this iconic estate is capable of producing, revealing a complex bouquet of pear, white peach, nectarine and spices. Full-bodied, round and fleshy with an enveloping core of fruit, it’s seamless and satiny, girdled by bright acids and framed by chalky, structuring dry extract.
Other Vintages
2022-
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert
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Enthusiast
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James - Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine
Chateau Haut-Brion is the oldest and by far the smallest of the "Premiers Grands Crus" vineyards of the Gironde 1855 classification. Chateau Haut-Brion is one of the few remaining family-owned domains of the Bordeaux region with a history going back to the 16th century. It has been owned by the American Dillon family since 1935.Thanks to its long history as one of Bordeaux's most prestigious wines, the estate has left its mark on the region for centuries.
The vineyard covers an area of 51 hectares (about 126 acres). Slightly more than 48 hectares are planted with red grape varieties. The terrain at Haut-Brion, formed of two large mounds of a type of gravel known as Gunzian because it was deposited during the earliest geologic stage of the Pleistocene epoch, rises between 40 and 50 feet above the beds of the neighboring streams. This gravel consists of small stones, including various kinds of quartz, and it is these precious gems that help to give Chateau Haut-Brion's wines their distinctive character. This expansive elevated reach of gravelly terrain, bounded at the north by the Le Peugue stream and at the south by the Le Serpent stream, has been called Haut -Brion at least as far back as the early years of the fifteenth century, as evidenced by ancient maps and deeds dating from this period. The sub-soil consists of a mixture of clay and sand.