November 22, 2023 - Opened in Hong Kong. P&P.
Probably should have been given better air, and served in less-than-optimal glasses, but I could tell the class of the wine coming through. No extensive notes taken, but expressive dark fruit and cassis coming through. My biggest take away is that the tannins were more resolved than I thought they'd be, reflecting some recent pleasant experiences with 2009 Bordeaux. Perhaps entering a good and early drinking window?
A very generous and pleasant surprise from C at this spontaneous lunch - and definitely looking forward to trying again. Imagine there is some upside, and will at the very least keep at this level for many years.
February 18, 2023 - Drank at dinner party for Cowan; decanted and drank immediately; subtle, with slight hints of dark berries and a long finish; not overwhelming like the '05; much more of a subdued but elegant experience.
February 16, 2023 - Decanted and tasted over about 2.5 hours over dinner. Last bottle of this was 5 years ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This time tertiary flavors of tobacco and cigar box were much more prevalent. For my palate, these tertiary flavors do not add to the wine at this stage in its development. Still a very good bottle but not delivering at its price point at the moment. Perhaps this is not the ideal point it time to maximize the pleasure from this bottle.
January 7, 2023 - Utregs Wijnhuis tasting Exclusief (Utregs Wijnhuis, Utrecht, NL): [Tasted blind] Called right bank Bordeaux. Beautiful bottle. On the nose mint, chocolate, ceder, coffee, cassis, black fruit. Medium acidity, medium tannins, long finish. 94-95
77% new wood, 18-20 months
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: This was a mess from start to finish. Really alcoholic on the nose and through the palate. There is ripe fruit, a good minerality backbone, an herbal component. The tannins are of good quality and there is a nice acidity. But overall this didn’t show well at all with all that alcohol bordering on nail polish. A bottle a few years ago showed much better (rated 95pts) without that alcohol. Bad bottle?
August 19, 2022 - Decanted 1hr45. Still a very deep red colour with no perceptible fading to the rim. Intense nose with very clear fennel, violet, lavender - deep nose with background of figs and a real light Christmas feel to it. Delightful. Palate is rich, ripe and intense. Plenty of blackberry, violet, fresh rosemary - very fresh with excellent acidity and fine grippy tannins attesting to its relative youth. Such a long persistence on the palate. This is, frankly, just excellent. A superlative wine from a wonderful year with great balance. It has everything you would want to see in a LaMHB. Potential 100-pointer. Drink now (just) to 2045.
July 1, 2022 - This one brought by Gabriel to the wine dinner.....it threw a few of us off, given the herbal qualities mixed with the florals and the still very strong, very dark and juicy fruit! It had a faint Bdx nose to give it away, but the flavor profile was more Cali or Spain to me, especially against the backdrop of the more traditional tasting Bdxs we had at the dinner also. I can only imagine how this will drink in 10-20 more years! It's very good already. Thanks for bringing this one, Gabriel!
July 1, 2022 - This was my selection for our monthly CWG at Eddie’s V.
Opened for one hour and double decanted for 45 min.
The wine is deep red ruby, no bricks, not showing any age, nose of flowers. The palate is sooo good and firm, black berries and earthy notes, entering its multidimensional phase… and the finish OMG.
I’m in luck that I have a second bottle which I’ll try to hold for at least 5+ years…
We had it blind and people at the table said crazy things like “Tempranillo (Pingus)”, to possible Malbec from South America but they were just profiling me!
November 3, 2019 - Faulty bottle
November 2, 2019 - Regular dinner group. Many wines based on the book “1001 wines you must try before you die”. (By EM @ Bottles): What an extremely sad story this is. Dark berries and celery in the bouquet. On the palate the same impressions, soy and chocolate. The only explanation I have is that must be a very seriously mistreated bottle. E.g. In the shop window with direct sunlight for a long time. What an extreme pity for this outrageous expensive bottle.