Le Clarence de Haut-Brion 2019 [magnum]

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Aromas of rich, plummy fruit, loamy soil, cigar wrapper and toasty oak preface the 2019 Le Clarence de Haut-Brion, a medium to full-bodied, broad and fleshy wine with fine depth at the core, succulent acids and powdery tannins. Ample and enveloping, it's more demonstrative than its counterpart, La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion from across the street.

Jean-Philippe Delmas is delighted with his 2019s, and justly so, as this rich, dramatic and unusually powerful vintage is a great success for Château Haut-Brion (and its neighbor, La Mission Haut-Brion). In the vineyards, a touch more Cabernet Sauvignon is being planted these days, but the evolution is subtle, as the 2019 blend remains very much in line with tradition at this address, at 49% Merlot and 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the balance Cabernet Franc. That predominance of Merlot, combined with Haut-Brion's warm mesoclimate, have delivered an above-average alcohol level, labelled at 15%. On the white side of the ledger, we can expect a touch more Sauvignon Blanc in the future, as Delmas notes that Sémillon tends to lose its acidity rapidly in warm vintages. In both colors, the vineyard team are working to mitigate the effects of climate change and minimize the quantities of copper employed in treatments throughout the year. In the cuvier and chai, winemaking remains very classical, with fermentation in Haut-Brion's proprietary two-tier stainless steel tanks, designed to maximize the quantity of high-quality free-run juice; malolactic fermentation in tank; and maturation in new oak barrels, some 80% of which are produced in house by Séguin Moreau (complemented by purchased barrels from Demptos and Taransaud). White grapes are whole-cluster pressed with great attention to pH, the musts protected with dry ice, and bottled with some 25 parts per million free sulfites, without much in the way of dissolved carbon dioxide.