November 18, 2023 - (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.
November 1, 2023 - perfect wine.
June 19, 2023 - 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.
June 1, 2023 - 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.
April 29, 2023 - Wonderful but still too early to get high quality finish
April 16, 2023 - 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
December 24, 2022 - 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.
December 24, 2022 - 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?
February 4, 2022 - To me the best Bordeaux of 2016 vintage
February 29, 2020 - 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.