Haut Bailly 2019

Captures so much of the spirit of Haut-Bailly - it is powerful, with a slow build of plump cassis and blackberry fruits, but at every point you feel a sense of restraint, with sculpted fine tannins that allow juice to run through the fruit. Harvest September 23 to October 10, 49hl/ha yield, 50% new oak. Technical director Gabriel Vialard.

Tasted blind. Complex, ripe blackberry notes on the nose. With the freshness of Graves on the end but still unintegrated. 14%Drink 2027– 2040

A beautiful, elegant, and quintessential expression of this terroir, the deep ruby/purple-hued 2019 Château Haut-Bailly offers up a tight yet promising bouquet of ripe blackcurrants, darker cherries, iron, tobacco leaf, scorched earth, and cedar pencil. Possessing incredible minerality, medium to full body, ripe tannins, and a classy, aristocratic, regal style, it opens up nicely with air and will benefit from 5-7 years of bottle age and have a lengthy prime drinking plateau of 20-30 years. It's another pure class release from this great estate, which is run by the talented Véronique Sanders.

The 2019 Haut-Bailly is made from 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it leaps with cassis, black raspberries, and kirsch, followed by nuances of pencil shavings, violets, Sichuan pepper, cedar chest, and crushed rocks. Full-bodied and firm, with exquisitely fine-grained tannins and alluring tension, the palate shimmers with energy, finishing with epic length and with loads of floral and mineral sparks. This is truly a stunning wine.

The 2019 Haut-Bailly, matured in 50% new oak and bottled in April 2021, has a stunning, classy and sophisticated bouquet of blackberry, melted tar, Earl Grey and light minerally scents. This is extremely focused, almost pixelated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, but there is real backbone and structure to this wine. Deep, intense, classy and classic in style, delivering an immense amount of sapidity on the enormously persistent finish. As I mentioned previously, this is a less flamboyant Haut-Bailly, but more intellectual. Drink 2024-2055.

The 2019 Haut-Bailly was picked 23 September to 10 October. After 10-15 minutes in the glass the wine gradually unfurls to reveal beautiful red berry fruit, crushed stone, wilted rose petals and faint hints of blueberry. The palate is quite brilliantly balanced, the tannins extremely fine and framing the slightly earthy black fruit laced with salt. Though Véronique Sanders suggests that it bears a semblance to the 2009 with more depth, I cannot see that verisimilitude. To me, it is a less flamboyant and more terroir expressive Haut-Bailly that has an effortless allure and a sense of sophistication. Wonderful.2024 - 2055

Such totally graceful perfumes to this, showing currants, dried flowers and stones, as well as hints of forest fruit and subtle tar, asphalt and smoke. Full-bodied, yet the texture is pristine with intense, polished and fine-grained tannins. So long, flavorful and ever so beautiful. The finish is never ending. This really is something special. 56% cabernet sauvignon, 36% merlot, 4% cabernet franc and 4% petit verdot.

Composed of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot, the 2019 Haut-Bailly was harvested from the 23rd of September to 11th of October. Deep garnet-purple colored, it leaps from the glass with vivacious notes of blackcurrant cordial, black raspberries and plum preserves with a tantalizing undercurrent of candied violets, dark chocolate, menthol and licorice plus a touch of Chinese five spice. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is achingly elegant, showing off perfumed black fruit layers with a firm frame of very fine-grained, silt-like tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with incredible persistence and fragrance. Just magic.