Château Haut-Brion 2021

Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

Adrian van Velsen - vvWine.ch

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

Flowers, tobacco wrapper, chocolate, burning wood, ash, cigar box, currants, black cherries, and spice. On the palate, the wine is fresh, bright, vibrant, lifted, and floral. The wine is elevated, refined, soft, and silky with a refreshing, silky edge to the fruits in the finish. There is richness and waves of fruit on the palate, but the waves are small and continuous. This is a good example of a modern classic Haut-Brion. The wine blends 50% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Cabernet Franc, 13.85% ABV. Harvesting took place September 13, finishing October 8, making this one of the longest harvest periods for Haut Brion. 48 hectoliters per hectare, with 43% of the harvest placed into the Grand Vin. Drink from 2027-2060.

Falstaff

Vivid ruby, with real depth of colour at the core and purple hues on the rim. Fine cassis, black cherries, a touch of noble wood, a hint of nougat. Good complexity, dark wild berries, fine fruit sweetness, ripe, integrated tannins, elegant and endowed with good length. Full of finesse, fresh and very accessible; a great food companion.

Wine Enthusiast

Jeb Dunnuck

In comparison to its sibling La Mission Haut-Brion, the 2021 Château Haut-Brion is firmer and much more masculine, with an impressive, almost austere style in its smoky red and black fruits, salted meats, graphite, tobacco, and crushed stone-driven aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and elegant on the palate, it picks up density and suppleness with time in the glass and has plenty of tannins, a seamless, layered mouthfeel, and a great finish. It's clearly in the fresher, elegant style of the vintage, yet this brings a serious, age-worthy style that will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve and drink brilliantly over the following two decades. The blend is 50.3% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 11.7% Cabernet Franc, hitting 13.8% alcohol, with the elevage in 73% new French oak.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2021 Haut-Brion confirms its fine showing en primeur, cementing its status as one of the wines of the vintage. Its complex bouquet of dark berries and cassis mingled with notions of cigar wrapper and burning embers unfurls in the glass. Full-bodied, deep and velvety, it’s concentrated and layered with a multidimensional core of fruit, sweet tannins and lively acids, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. Reflecting the timeless elegance of Haut-Brions from cooler years, the 2021 will delight Bordeaux purists.

James Suckling

A very structured young Haut-Brion with blackberry, blackcurrant, black-olive and mushroom character. Medium to full-bodied with a driving balance of firm and ripe tannins and gorgeous fruit. 50.3% merlot, 38% cabernet sauvignon and 11.7% cabernet franc.