Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Blackcurrant, orange peel and green coffee bean aromas follow through to a full body with medium, round tannins. Citrusy, juicy and rose bush finish. Chewy and intense. Some old vine character with bark and dark mushroom. Solid! One for the cellar. 72% cabernet sauvignon and 28% merlot. From biodynamically grown grapes. Demeter certification. Try after 2027.
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Wine Enthusiast
The wine is refreshing from the start. Its tannins underline the line of acidity and lightness that gives the wine a fine structure. It is vibrant and bright yet it is possible to sense the depth of the tannins. Organic. Barrel Sample: 93–95
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from the heart of this hallowed appellation (the main vineyard is just north of Château Latour), the 2020 Château Haut-Bages Libéral sports a vivid purple hue as well as a beautiful perfume of cassis and plum-like fruits interwoven with licorice, violets, damp earth, and subtle underbrush-like aromas and flavors. It's medium-bodied and has a focused, elegant mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and outstanding length. It shows the focused, elegant, yet concentrated style of this vintage beautifully. Give bottles another 3-5 years and enjoy through 2050.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Haut-Bages-Liberal is supple and seamless, bursting with aromas of sweet dark berries, petals and licorice, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy palate. Succulent and polished, it will offer a broad drinking window. As readers will remember, this wine derives from bio dynamically farmed vineyards located on clay-limestone and gravel soils to the north of Château Latour (as well as a parcel of gravel sandwiched between Pichon-Baron and Lynch-Bages). Best After 2025
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Decanter
A ton of blackcurrant and blackberry fruit, chewy and concentrated, cassis fruit pastilles give a sweet but well textured feel, and a shot of acidity picks everything up on the finish. A yield of 44hl/had. They have limestone and clay soils here, atypical for Pauillac but they help in such a dry summer.
Barrel Sample: 91
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.