Winemaker Notes
Low yields and a late year are a strong indication of excellent quality. The 2008 vintage is rich in color, has great vivacity, structure and balance, with velvety tannins that are seductive and powerful: both striking and soft!
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A candidate for the -wine of the vintage,- the 2008 Haut-Bailly possesses incredible complexity. Tell-tale notes of lead pencil shavings, charcoal, damp earth, black cherries and black currants intermixed with a hint of subtle barbecue smoke are present in this classic, quintessential Graves. Medium-bodied with an emerging, precocious complexity, it is a super-pure, beautifully textured, long wine that can be drunk now or cellared for 20-25 years. Bravo!
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Decanter
Beautifully balanced and concentrated, with Cabernet Sauvignon dominant in the fruit expression in terms of the controlled, elegant, savoury and totally moreish blackberry and cassis fruits. This remains extremely young, closed in on itself, not quite ready to reveal all its facets, but has the grip that suggests just how good this wine is, finishing up with layers of plum, slate and liquorice. Particularly late harvest in 2008 right through to October 23 (beginning September 25), one of the latest on record, and the latest of the decade. Highlights how sure and confident was the winemaking at Haut-Bailly ten years on from Bob Wilmers arrival. Drinking Window 2020 - 2040
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Jeb Dunnuck
Fully mature, yet still pure and layered, with plenty of vibrancy, the 2008 Château Haut-Bailly has quintessential Haut-Bailly sweet darker berries, smoked tobacco, minty herbs, and floral aromas and flavors. These carry over to the palate, where the wine is medium to full-bodied, has firmer, focusing tannins, solid mid-palate depth, and a great finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
While at this young stage there may be toasty aromas, there is also intense, perfumed fruit. This complex, distinguished wine is polished, with plenty of bright fruits and acidity.
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James Suckling
Wonderful nose of decadent fruit and chocolate, with hints of meat and flowers. Full bodied, with well-integrated tannins and a spicy, silky and long finish. Tight now, but so fine and dense. Give it four to five years of bottle age. So lovely. Best after 2013.
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Wine Spectator
Racy and slightly taut, with red currant and cherry pit notes laced with grilled herb and warm stone. There’s a sinewy edge on the finish, with more minerality than fruit for now, but this adds some flesh as it airs, showing subtle persistence. Drink now through 2016.
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.
Recognized for its superior reds as well as whites, Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank claims classified growths for both—making it quite unique in comparison to its neighboring Médoc properties.
Pessac’s Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth located outside of the Médoc, is said to have been the first to conceptualize fine red wine in Bordeaux back in the late 1600s. The estate, along with its high-esteemed neighbors, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pique-Caillou and Chateau Pape-Clément are today all but enveloped by the city of Bordeaux. The rest of the vineyards of Pessac-Léognan are in clearings of heavily forested area or abutting dense suburbs.
Arid sand and gravel on top of clay and limestone make the area unique and conducive to growing Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc as well as the grapes in the usual Left Bank red recipe: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and miniscule percentages of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
The best reds will show great force and finesse with inky blue and black fruit, mushroom, forest, tobacco, iodine and a smooth and intriguing texture.
Its best whites show complexity, longevity and no lack of exotic twists on citrus, tropical and stone fruit with pronounced floral and spice characteristics.