Community Tasting Notes 40

• stillrunning Likes this wine: 93 points

  February 8, 2022 - This is an excellent mature claret. Perfectly balanced, great middle and long finish. Quite elegant considering its price point on release. As others have noted, if your bottle has been well-stored (no orange edge) then it needs a long decant time. I decanted it, got rid of the sediment and then divided it half and half in decanter and cleaned bottle. Refilled the bottle after 8 hours (!), took it to the restaurant and it was perfect. All my previous bottles never came around with a shorter decant period.

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• CGWIND Likes this wine: 90 points

  November 11, 2021 - Very nice - mature but nicely integrated and balanced. Some green pepper on nose and palate Good acid and lovely tannin

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• GrapeScott wrote: 91 points

  September 19, 2021 - Classic aged claret with a gorgeous Pauillac nose of tobacco leaf, cassis, cedar, pencil lead and saddle leather. This bottle had a base neck fill with a cork in excellent condition; color is brick-ruby and still looks quite youthful. Not quite as nice as an '85 Beychevelle I had last week, but pretty close. HBL made some really lovely wines in the '80s.

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• englishman's claret wrote: 89 points

  August 20, 2021 - The 1985 Haut Bages Libéral seems slightly past its apogee, showing more in the way of tertiary components than fruit at this point but deliciously, classically Pauillac nonetheless. The nose leads with blistered shishito, pencil, warm cedar, unsmoked cigar, and leather. A little diffuse and surely without the energy it once had, but still comfortingly enjoyable (neck fill, good cork, followed 3 hours in decanter).

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• msauer Likes this wine: 91 points

  June 17, 2021 - bemerkenswert frisch, überhaupt nicht „au“
  frische Frucht. Erfreuliche 12.5%
  Gute Struktur und Fülle

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Wine Definition

• Vintage 1985
• Type Red
• Producer Château Haut-Bages Libéral
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Médoc
• Appellation Pauillac

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 206 (55%)
• Consumed 171 (45%)

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