Community Tasting Notes 16

• Cailles wrote: 91 points

  November 23, 2022 - Ten Vintages Haut Bailly vs Mission HB: Preamble: All wines tasted blind in 10 vintage flights (1994-2015). To every flight one random third wine from Pessac Leognan added (2x Haut Brion, 2x Smith, 2x Pape Clement, 1x Branon, 1x Luchy Halde, 1x Carmes, 1x Chevalier). All wines opened a few hours before consumption but no decanting.
  
  Some findings:
  1) Haut Bailly outperformed Mission (5 vs 4 wins, 92.5 vs 90.5 average). 2) Haut Bailly is a rather structured wine which seems to shine bright in ripe and warm vintages, without any form of excess ripeness or extraction. 3) When done right (05/15), Mission eclipses Haut Bailly with its depth and delineation , but several vintages showed a bit too ripe but especially with the alcohol not well masked (09/10). 4) Pessac wines usually need quite some air to open up. In this setting (no decanting), most wines needed a lot of swirling to fully open up and will need more cellar time. 5) The best wines today were Haut Bailly 09 (96pts) & 10 (95pts) and Mission 05 & 15 (95pts).
  
  TN: As usual, Smith Haut Lafitte shows quite hedonistic on the nose with a beautiful mix of coffee, tobacco and some ripe dark berries. This is the best nose in the series. On the palate much less exciting with dark and blue fruit, a bit bitter herbs and just hints of tobacco. Very light and hollow from mid palate on. The structure is quite fine but overall nothing to get excited about.
  
  Decanting: No extended decanting necessary.

  Comment

• OmiyaDrinker wrote: 91 points

  September 3, 2019 - YAWG Old Bordeaux Tasting; 8/31/2019-9/3/2019: Balanced, restrained nose. Very long finish, some salty minerality. A little bit of caramel on the finish.

  Comment

• Nipperu Does not like this wine: 88 points

  August 31, 2019 - Clear medium ruby
  
  Seashore? Wet sand?
  Berries
  Spice
  Not much on the nose...
  
  Dry
  Lively fruit
  Mid+ tannins
  Mid acid
  Mid alcohol
  Mid body
  Mid finish

  Comment

• DrinkBordeaux wrote: 91 points

  March 1, 2017 - From the first successful vintage produced by the Cathiards, the first three vintages having had obvious challenges in all of Bordeaux. You can certainly sense that this doesn't possess the drive and overall stuffing of the post 2000 SHL vintages. This is a touch lighter in body, but certainly with a lot of current drinkability. The nose had considerable red and dark fruits, barbecue smoke, earth, cedar, green pepper, and tobacco. Overall this had nice balance on the palate. Tannins essentially resolved. Good level of acidity. Medium length finish. Definitely drink this now if you have this in your cellar.

  Comment

• Claret & CdP Gang Likes this wine: 92 points

  January 15, 2016 - Lovely mature red color with clear brick on the rim, beautiful nose of autumn leaves, cedar, tea leaves, on the palate very alive with good concentration of fruits, still has some of the famous 94 vintage tannins lurking, medium bodied, peak drinking now
  92

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Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1994
• Type Red
• Producer Château Smith Haut Lafitte
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Graves
• Appellation Pessac-Léognan

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 73 (39%)
• Consumed 112 (61%)

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