Haut Brion 2014

Tasted blind. Lots of development at the rim. Meaty and interesting with some saline quality and some veginess. Really appetising and unforced. Smooth as a baby’s bottom. Quite long but very definitely understated. 21st-century wine! Long. Very rich and exciting. Though dry on the end.Drink 2023-2043

The flagship 2014 Haut Brion is a beauty that packs more flavor, intensity, and depth than just about every other wine in the vintage. A blend of 50% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cabernet Franc that was harvest between the 11th of September and the 10th of October, it offers a classic bouquet of blackcurrants, wood smoke, lead pencil shavings, chocolate, and tobacco leaf. With full-bodied richness, a plump, layered texture, sweet tannin, and a great finish, it’s a gem in the vintage that can be enjoyed anytime over the coming two to three decades. 2023 - 2053

Loaded with warm tar, singed juniper, plum reduction and cassis notes that are perfectly melded, giving this a remarkably supple edge. The finish lets tobacco, bay leaf and incense accents glide in. Shows lovely mouthfeel and superior refinement overall. Best from 2020 through 2035. 10,800 cases made.

Black fruits dominate the nose floral fragrant slightly smoky with lots of violets. The fruit on the palate is sweet the tannins fine the mid palate rich with depth suppleness. There is lovely balance freshness under the richness and although light and elegant at the back the finish has depth of flavour. 2025-40

Haut-Brion is often the least showy of the first growths at this stage and that's the case once more in 2014. It's a pretty backward wine, dominated by acidity and tannin at the moment, but with its grassy, leafy fruit lying just below the surface. Elegant and restrained, it's a connoisseur's red.

Savoury dried herbs and lifted red fruits on the nose. Tense and tangy, this has real bite to it on the palate, I like the juicy core, giving this some fun and lift, but it's also quite compact and linear still – all driven in one line from start to finish. In that sense it's got lovely precision and focus but isn't so easy today. However, it has structure, length, fruit, acidity and great tannin integration. Lots to like here and keeps the momentum more than most. 2024-2046

The 2014 Haut-Brion has a generous, quite rich bouquet, a little leathery with just a suggestion of menthol that I have remarked upon in previous bottles. It is attractive but quite open and forward for such a young wine. The palate is medium-bodied with a menthol-tinged entry that sets you up for a very medicinal wine. It is nicely balanced with crisp acidity and quite a savoury, herbal finish that does not quite reflect the vintage. This showed better a few months ago. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. 2025 - 2060

The 2014 Haut Brion is a blend of 50% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 39% Cabernet Sauvignon picked between 11 September and 10 October, cropped at 42.9 hectoliters per hectare and raised in 70% new oak. As I observed when I made the comparison in barrel, the Haut Brion exudes more red fruit than La Mission Haut Brion, adorned with wild strawberry, bilberry, tobacco and again, just that hint of menthol in the background. The palate is very fresh and taut on the entry. The acidity is very nicely pitched and there is a touch of marmalade and blood orange that is tangible at the back of the mouth. There is real frisson to this Haut Brion, not quite as seductive and as smooth as its sibling over the road, but very persistent in the mouth. I noticed that over 15 to 20 minutes that the Haut Brion just gained more and more complexity, putting a small distance between itself and La Mission, as if determined to mock my opinion in barrel that La Mission would have the upper hand! Be my guest. Haut Brion has an inch, just an inch ahead of its "rival" sibling. Drink date 2021 - 2050

The Château Haut-Brion 2014 is a blend of 50% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 39% Cabernet Sauvignon picked between 11 September and 10 October cropped at 42.9 hectoliters per hectare raised in 70% new oak (Jean-Philippe Delmas has been lowering the new oak in recent vintages.) The fruit seems a little “redder” than La Mission at this stage with vibrant wild strawberry, blackcurrant and a pinch of dry tobacco, a hint of menthol developing with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, that tobacco element becoming a little stronger in the mouth, a little foursquare but like La Mission Haut-Brion, focusing upon precision rather than power. Of course, a superb contribution to the vintage, but I'd place my bets on the "Mish", at least on these barrel tastings. Drink 2019-2040.

Dense and tight now with blackberries, blueberries, iodine, minerals and currants. Full-bodied, firm and closed, yet there's a persistence and length that is most impressive. Polished and very classy.