1988 Château Haut-Brion

Community Tasting Notes (156) Avg Score: 93.4 points

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  3/30/2024 - Philip67 Likes this wine: 93 Points

  The best Haut Brion 1988 I've had. Others have been quite flat, this had some of the intensity and lift I expect from Haut Brion. Deep rich dark fruits, tar and some vanilla and leather. Beginning to dry but still great fruit. Elegant. Mid bodied. Long and complex. Drinking now, will last for many years.

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  12/31/2023 - sempervinum Likes this wine: 95 Points

  8 decades tasting. One of the best wines was Haut Brion. No decant. Dark red. No sign of age. Tobacco, walnut, dark fruit. Beguiling aromatics. Not too much. Just right. Acidity perfectly integrated Strong and ripe tannins. Good structure. There was a sip left in the bottle which I consumed two days later. Still strong. More voluptious. A bit fuller. A notch better than l‘ Arrosee 1966.

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  12/25/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Haut Brion really crushed the 1980s. The 1988 might be one of the tops for the vintage. 1988, sometimes, can be a little too green and bell peppery for me. This wine is far from that. It has the HB signature deep, dark, red velvet. There are red and black cherries, with gobs of soil, dark, loamy, soil, the kind one finds in the mountains. The greenness from the vintage shows here as dog fennel and mown fields of mixed grasses, which is perfectly acceptable to me. I gather mineral traits, and plenty of holiday spice. It’s amazing how I perceive texture from this bottle; I think, ‘Only HB has that texture!’ I get the gravel, baking spice, and dark soil of LMHB, but with the added velvet texture. It’s truly terrific.

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  11/28/2023 - aquacongas Likes this wine: 94 Points

  blind
  More tertiary aromas than fruit, refreshing acidity. Balanced. Close to his peak. Good drinking window. 94

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  11/2/2023 - kevinpatrick Likes this wine:

  "Off" Vintages from Elite Producers: (Petrus, Lafite, Margaux, etc) (Charlotte, NC): Opened at 5pm and decanted for one hour. Back in the bottle until dinner at 6:30pm when cork was removed and slo-ox until serving at ~7:30pm.
  Beautifully expressive nose – red and black fruits with a hint of rusticity. Confirmed on the palate with a great balance between structure and complexity – dark fruits, truffle, and soft leather. For this flight it had a more youthful intensity that was only surprising because of how youthful the 1981s drank. Excellent length finish, an A+ wine that was my WOTN until retasting hours later when both the Petrus and Margaux reached absolutely sublime levels.

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