(Unblind tasting) Elegance and complexity that presents itself in an understated way. It starts with high toned red fruit, strawberry and red currant, with a tinge of cool mint. These flavors are juicy and pure, and simply delicious.
Earthier notes emerge behind the fruit. Leather, prosciutto, bay leaf and sandalwood. Then a distinctly Bordelaise finish of pencil shavings and countryside that’s unmistakably there but in harmony with the fruit.
Many would disagree but I don’t think this is too young. I love how juicy and vibrant the red fruit is at this age, and the oak is already well integrated. No doubt it also has many good years ahead of it.
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Exquisitely balanced - probably the most finessed wine I have ever tasted. Drank side-by-side with a 2015 Latour Martillac which while excellent, felt more rustic in comparison.
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I was lucky, on Sunday last week I had Mission 2016 and yesterday Haut-brion 2016, Mission is probably a little more classic style and I think will last longer, but Haut brion is already so ready , it is so nice, a touch of sweetness, blackberry and als red fruit ; but it already ripe , perfect balance and power in the glass, but the power is not to much and at the end also a lot of finesse, great bottle, I'm so lucky
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Very young and very impressive. Enormous wine, with perfectly integrated tanins, impeccable structure and a lovely mouthfeel all about tension and focus. A potentially perfect wine. Time will tell.
Opened at 9pm at cellar temp which is 11C now Started to pour at 6pm and followed for 20hrs. Its much like La Mission 2016 : Earthy, dark, homogeneous and long. Same on day2. Too young, OK complexity, OK (but not more) lift. Can become a legend, but 1989 eg never got me singing 100% either, although I like HB. Somewhere at 95pt for now?
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Outside temperature: 17oC, inside temperature: 21oC, body temperature 36,4oC. On these conditions the wine performed very well. Decanted for 2h42 but i should have kept it for 2-3 minutes more. Big cork, size doesn’t matter though. Drinkable. Good wine.
56% Merlot, 37,5% Cabernet Sauvignon og 6,5% Cabernet Franc.
Fabulous aromas with all the classic touch you can imagine. Delicious fresh and energetic fruit with chilled blackberries, blueberries, violet, nuts, wet wool, charcoal and clear graphite that impresses. Pretty full-bodied wine with superb fruit quality. This fabulous energy in the wine just stops the time. Delightful freshness with lovely slim centerpiece. Blackberries, forest berries, blueberries, espresso, anise, graphite and high quality sweet wood aromas hitting the palate. Long amazing finish with perfect matching tannins and gorgeous acidity. A unique wine! 100 points.
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Ode to France, les Accabailles and the Crus Classés de Grave (Château Carbonnieux): 2016 is utterly magnificent and it moved me to make a video, which I have posted on Facebook but will soon be on the wine-chronicles page as well. I loved it from barrel as one of the top wines of the vintage and it fulfills its promise from bottle. What richness and refinement, what precision and opulence with burgeoning tobacco. A tour de force and arguably the first among the firsts of 2016.
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Merlot predominant which surprises me, 55%! Fresh nose, dark earthy wet stone black currant. Fairly dry finish but perfectly ripe tannins, caramel finish
Opened 11am, double decanted back into bottle no cork, served at 7pm... I think this was key to the accessibility of this young wine.
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Analyzing the bottle/barrel ratings of 17 critics for the last three great vintages (2015, 2016, 2018), it’s the Haut Brion 2016 which got the second highest average score with a 99.16 (#1 Margaux 2015, #3 Latour 2016, #4 Lafleur 2015, #5 Petrus 2015; top 30: 12x 2016, 9x 2015, 9x 2018). Since I wasn‘t able to taste this wine at any of the merchants arrivage tastings, it was certainly worth it to pop a bottle, eventhough it‘s clearly infanticide. There is indeed something great in the making. The structure is as perfect as it can get and the longer it sit in the glass the more complex aroma profile it revealed. So the potential for perfection is definitely there but this evening it didn’t deliver as much fun as some other 2016s I tried right after bottling. Interstingly, I‘ve experienced some other 2016s already closing down between the November 2018 tastings and the March/May 2019 tastings. Maybe this one is also closing down or has already? One thing to add: others in our group were much more impressed by the wine than I. The difference in opinion is not what the wine might become one day but how much fun to drink it is at this point. 94+ with lots of upside.
TN: At first it was all about sweet cherries and some other red fruit. Not much more. Monolithic. A bit disappointing. With more time and two hours in the decanter it showed more nuanced, fresh and harmious. Fresh red berries, some cassis, some blue fruit and some candied red fruit, slight mineral expression. Hardly anymore nuances and minerality/earthy components showing at this stage but what was there came with a good precision. The structure, as described above, was luxurious and quite perfect with perfect tannins and acidity. Very good length.
Decanting: These two+ hours in the decanter were not enough. I would try it with 12 hours of decanting, if you open a bottle today. I had a glass on day two and that showed a bit improved with ash, flint, lead pencil adding to the complexity.
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The nose, with its knockout sensations of smoke, mint, cigar wrapper, tobacco and crème de cassis is off the hook. For many wine-lovers that would be enough. But for me, it is the elegance, concentration, complexity, endless length and sensuous textures that hits the bulls-eye. This is one of those dream wines that if you can afford it, it belongs in your cellar!
Tasted blind. Short decant. Initially a cassis fruit, but over time more plum and maybe cherry. Lots of sweet baking spices / Christmas spices, bit of clove. On the palate muscular with lots of intensity, a bit biting acidity but with well integrated even if still slightly mouthcoating tannins and a decent lenght, fruity cherry finish. It became quickly clear that this was - as a couple of fellas described it - a luxurious structure. For such a young Bordeaux this is absolutely mind-boggling. Once tamed a bit by age this has clearly the potential for majestic greatness. The scents keep luring you back to the glass and you start taking smaller and smaller sips, in the end merely wetting your lips, because you just don't want this experience to end.
I love this wine, it was so fragrant and deep,displays deep cherry and black fruits. Very Big wine! drink 2028 onward. It smells like blackberry, blueberry and black currant (cassis). It tastes like blackberry, blueberry and black currant (cassis). The body is full. The wine has silky texture. The wine finishes long.
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Fabulous! Very noble notes of criolos, black fruits, berries of the woods. The mouth offers a wonderful density. Great consistent texture and remarkable flexibility. He exudes an impression of harmony, finesse and natural authority that puts him in a class of his own.Best than 2015, 2010, 2009 and 1989
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Very dark in color, with just a bit of purple in the sheen the wine is the perfect combination of purity, power, refinement, complexity and length. Not as powerful as other recent vintages, you find more elegance on the palate. The finish builds in intensity moving from flavor to flavor, leaving you with this sense of purity and Cuban cigar tobacco. The wine was made from a blend of 56% Merlot, 37.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6.5% Cabernet Franc. The wine reached 13.9% alcohol with a pH of 3.67. The harvest took place from September 19 to October 13. The wine represents 53% of the Grand Vin.
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11/18/2023 - EZVZ Likes this wine: 100 Points
(Unblind tasting) Elegance and complexity that presents itself in an understated way. It starts with high toned red fruit, strawberry and red currant, with a tinge of cool mint. These flavors are juicy and pure, and simply delicious.
Earthier notes emerge behind the fruit. Leather, prosciutto, bay leaf and sandalwood. Then a distinctly Bordelaise finish of pencil shavings and countryside that’s unmistakably there but in harmony with the fruit.
Many would disagree but I don’t think this is too young. I love how juicy and vibrant the red fruit is at this age, and the oak is already well integrated. No doubt it also has many good years ahead of it.
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11/1/2023 - yaanik Likes this wine: 100 Points
perfect wine.
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6/19/2023 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 98 Points
Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion Tasting and Dinner (Winefield's Auctioneers, Amsterdam, NL): Beautifully precise and fresh, perfumed and exciting, diaphanous and refined, flowers and red berries, wonderful tension and harmony, firm but papery tannins, minty, perfect weight, elegant and layered, just a whiff of oak, long finish with great drive. Stunning wine, effortless elegance, great future.
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6/1/2023 - motuski Likes this wine: 98 Points
Exquisitely balanced - probably the most finessed wine I have ever tasted. Drank side-by-side with a 2015 Latour Martillac which while excellent, felt more rustic in comparison.
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4/29/2023 - JimRusche wrote: 92 Points
Wonderful but still too early to get high quality finish
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4/16/2023 - Beeck10 wrote: 99 Points
I was lucky, on Sunday last week I had Mission 2016 and yesterday Haut-brion 2016, Mission is probably a little more classic style and I think will last longer, but Haut brion is already so ready , it is so nice, a touch of sweetness, blackberry and als red fruit ; but it already ripe , perfect balance and power in the glass, but the power is not to much and at the end also a lot of finesse, great bottle, I'm so lucky
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12/24/2022 - Vinum Deorum wrote: 97 Points
Very young and very impressive. Enormous wine, with perfectly integrated tanins, impeccable structure and a lovely mouthfeel all about tension and focus. A potentially perfect wine. Time will tell.
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12/24/2022 - otto60 wrote:
Opened at 9pm at cellar temp which is 11C now
Started to pour at 6pm and followed for 20hrs.
Its much like La Mission 2016 :
Earthy, dark, homogeneous and long. Same on day2.
Too young, OK complexity, OK (but not more) lift.
Can become a legend, but 1989 eg never got me singing 100% either, although I like HB.
Somewhere at 95pt for now?
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2/4/2022 - Decarlor wrote: 100 Points
To me the best Bordeaux of 2016 vintage
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2/29/2020 - PAOK Wines Brussels wrote:
Outside temperature: 17oC, inside temperature: 21oC, body temperature 36,4oC. On these conditions the wine performed very well. Decanted for 2h42 but i should have kept it for 2-3 minutes more. Big cork, size doesn’t matter though. Drinkable. Good wine.
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1/7/2020 - RenatoDN Likes this wine: 100 Points
Magnífico!
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11/22/2019 - Andre Brattland wrote: 100 Points
56% Merlot, 37,5% Cabernet Sauvignon og 6,5% Cabernet Franc.
Fabulous aromas with all the classic touch you can imagine. Delicious fresh and energetic fruit with chilled blackberries, blueberries, violet, nuts, wet wool, charcoal and clear graphite that impresses. Pretty full-bodied wine with superb fruit quality. This fabulous energy in the wine just stops the time. Delightful freshness with lovely slim centerpiece. Blackberries, forest berries, blueberries, espresso, anise, graphite and high quality sweet wood aromas hitting the palate. Long amazing finish with perfect matching tannins and gorgeous acidity. A unique wine! 100 points.
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11/13/2019 - PanosKakaviatos Likes this wine: 100 Points
Ode to France, les Accabailles and the Crus Classés de Grave (Château Carbonnieux): 2016 is utterly magnificent and it moved me to make a video, which I have posted on Facebook but will soon be on the wine-chronicles page as well. I loved it from barrel as one of the top wines of the vintage and it fulfills its promise from bottle. What richness and refinement, what precision and opulence with burgeoning tobacco. A tour de force and arguably the first among the firsts of 2016.
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11/9/2019 - jmoon Likes this wine: 98 Points
Merlot predominant which surprises me, 55%!
Fresh nose, dark earthy wet stone black currant. Fairly dry finish but perfectly ripe tannins, caramel finish
Opened 11am, double decanted back into bottle no cork, served at 7pm... I think this was key to the accessibility of this young wine.
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9/29/2019 - Cailles wrote: 94 Points
Analyzing the bottle/barrel ratings of 17 critics for the last three great vintages (2015, 2016, 2018), it’s the Haut Brion 2016 which got the second highest average score with a 99.16 (#1 Margaux 2015, #3 Latour 2016, #4 Lafleur 2015, #5 Petrus 2015; top 30: 12x 2016, 9x 2015, 9x 2018). Since I wasn‘t able to taste this wine at any of the merchants arrivage tastings, it was certainly worth it to pop a bottle, eventhough it‘s clearly infanticide. There is indeed something great in the making. The structure is as perfect as it can get and the longer it sit in the glass the more complex aroma profile it revealed. So the potential for perfection is definitely there but this evening it didn’t deliver as much fun as some other 2016s I tried right after bottling. Interstingly, I‘ve experienced some other 2016s already closing down between the November 2018 tastings and the March/May 2019 tastings. Maybe this one is also closing down or has already? One thing to add: others in our group were much more impressed by the wine than I. The difference in opinion is not what the wine might become one day but how much fun to drink it is at this point. 94+ with lots of upside.
TN: At first it was all about sweet cherries and some other red fruit. Not much more. Monolithic. A bit disappointing. With more time and two hours in the decanter it showed more nuanced, fresh and harmious. Fresh red berries, some cassis, some blue fruit and some candied red fruit, slight mineral expression. Hardly anymore nuances and minerality/earthy components showing at this stage but what was there came with a good precision. The structure, as described above, was luxurious and quite perfect with perfect tannins and acidity. Very good length.
Decanting: These two+ hours in the decanter were not enough. I would try it with 12 hours of decanting, if you open a bottle today. I had a glass on day two and that showed a bit improved with ash, flint, lead pencil adding to the complexity.
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9/21/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote: 100 Points
The nose, with its knockout sensations of smoke, mint, cigar wrapper, tobacco and crème de cassis is off the hook. For many wine-lovers that would be enough. But for me, it is the elegance, concentration, complexity, endless length and sensuous textures that hits the bulls-eye. This is one of those dream wines that if you can afford it, it belongs in your cellar!
6 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (4)
9/9/2019 - sirpat00 Likes this wine: 99 Points
Tasted blind. Short decant. Initially a cassis fruit, but over time more plum and maybe cherry. Lots of sweet baking spices / Christmas spices, bit of clove. On the palate muscular with lots of intensity, a bit biting acidity but with well integrated even if still slightly mouthcoating tannins and a decent lenght, fruity cherry finish. It became quickly clear that this was - as a couple of fellas described it - a luxurious structure. For such a young Bordeaux this is absolutely mind-boggling. Once tamed a bit by age this has clearly the potential for majestic greatness. The scents keep luring you back to the glass and you start taking smaller and smaller sips, in the end merely wetting your lips, because you just don't want this experience to end.
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3/21/2019 - ironmanwine Likes this wine: 100 Points
I love this wine, it was so fragrant and deep,displays deep cherry and black fruits. Very Big wine! drink 2028 onward.
It smells like blackberry, blueberry and black currant (cassis). It tastes like blackberry, blueberry and black currant (cassis). The body is full. The wine has silky texture. The wine finishes long.
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1/27/2019 - watcheslover Likes this wine: 100 Points
Fabulous! Very noble notes of criolos, black fruits, berries of the woods. The mouth offers a wonderful density. Great consistent texture and remarkable flexibility. He exudes an impression of harmony, finesse and natural authority that puts him in a class of his own.Best than 2015, 2010, 2009 and 1989
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4/29/2017 - Jeff Leve wrote: 99 Points
Very dark in color, with just a bit of purple in the sheen the wine is the perfect combination of purity, power, refinement, complexity and length. Not as powerful as other recent vintages, you find more elegance on the palate. The finish builds in intensity moving from flavor to flavor, leaving you with this sense of purity and Cuban cigar tobacco. The wine was made from a blend of 56% Merlot, 37.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6.5% Cabernet Franc. The wine reached 13.9% alcohol with a pH of 3.67. The harvest took place from September 19 to October 13. The wine represents 53% of the Grand Vin.
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