Community Tasting Notes 90

• Triforwine Likes this wine: 99 points

  December 9, 2023 - Not even sure what to say. So many thoughts hard to put to words. 3rd time tasting this. Got a perfect bottle this time. Omg. Mid neck fill. Perfect cork. Lots of coarse sediment. Full of life from the word go. Everything the prior bottles were but a lot more. Drank from decant slowly over long dinner to 4.5 hours when it was gone. Best sip was the last. Finish 30 sec easy. Started light and gentle and Kept getting darker and more intense in the glass every hour, incredibly complex and evolving but stable (yeah I know that sorta doesn’t make sense). Perfect cellaring from release in dad’s cellar, drank in his home first time Back home after he passed drank with my mom who made chicken Marengo. Unbelievable wine. Prior bottles were remarkable, wonderful and different-see my prior notes. This bottle-One of the best wines I’ve ever had. Alongside the 78 beycheyvelle which I love this was just on another level. A magical wine-But you have to love old graves or this wine won’t be your thing. “It’s a 10 for me”. 98-99+ if well stored expect bottle variation.

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• DAN BAILEY Likes this wine:

  October 23, 2023 - From double mag! Blackcurrant. Smooth, elegant, plummy. Great depth and persistence. Lead pencil and tobacco/ash with air. Voted #1 on the night.

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• Triforwine Likes this wine: 97 points

  December 24, 2022 - This was absolutely magnificent if you love old graves but not a wine that everybody will enjoy. This bottle of 78 HB was fantastic my favorite of the 4 first growth 78s I’ve tasted. Completely different than the first one we opened in 2018- Good color right off the bat this time. Not a crowd pleaser. Very tertiary and perhaps a bit past peak but just gorgeous and good from the start. Paired with Baked ziti with family Christmas fixings. Decanted 2 hours before dinner but The others preferred to drink the champagne and 2013 Hall cab and a 2014 Barolo. So I had the bottle almost to myself so put a glass cork in the decanter and it kept getting better and held up even overnight as I prevented over oxygenation with the glass cork. Poured into smaller decanters to serve and assess response to controlled aeration. So different than the one 4 years ago which was the craziest experience and I made detailed notes on. This one was a nice aged claret color from the start and darkened and gained weight and flavor got better over hours. Wife hates it but she’s not a fan of old Bordeaux much less old graves. So funny Chrissie said it tasted like olives and smelled like green pepper and Brian said he thought it tasted like cigar which they did not like. They are correct!!! And even more weird but faint complex tertiary things are in there. But I like that! While this was a bit lacking fruit, there’s just enough fruit to balance an incredible array of tertiary aromas and flavors and the finish is long enough that I think well stored bottles are going to be great for another decade easily but doubt it can improve so if you have this, pick a special occasion and be prepared for bottle variation and drink up! 96-97 for me for this bottke.

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• Francophile1 Likes this wine: 94 points

  November 5, 2022 - Eight Decades of Decadence: Kaboom! Dang, this is drinking above its weight class from a weaker vintage. Very consistent to my tasting note for this wine back in February '22. An excellent representation from the decade of the '70s.

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• dream Likes this wine: 93 points

  September 22, 2022 - An excellent bottle and perhaps the only truly mature wine tonight showing the full peacock of Haut Brion flavors with notes of dried tobacco, scorched earth, road tar and minerals. Haut Brion in its final death spiral but what an exit. Best right after opening and faded some afterwards. Would love to drink this out of a larger format. Popped and poured. 93-

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Pro Reviews 3

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1978
• Type Red
• Producer Château Haut-Brion
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Graves
• Appellation Pessac-Léognan
• UPC Codes 031259016368, 0649944040507, 3364420025911, 3700188022197, 802236002519

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 27 (2%)
• In Cellars 805 (63%)
• Consumed 438 (34%)

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