Winemaker Notes
Blend: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon with 35% Merlot
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Spice and wood flavors are dominant in this wine at this stage although the fragrant fruit also shines through. It has fine juicy blackberry notes and softly integrated tannins. In the end, it is all about the great fruitiness.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
James Suckling
A very attractive red with chocolate and hazelnut character highlighting the dark fruit. Medium to full body. Flavorful finish. Delicious. Second wine of Château Haut-Bailly. Drink or hold.
-
Decanter
Charming and elegant, the rich blueberry fruit has good density, even if its not particularly generous. The tannins close the fruit down but have life and definition in them, and this will soften and open within four to five years. There was 30% frost in the vineyard, but no second generation fruit was used - in fact, they didn't even have any. The blend has a little more Merlot than usual. 30% of production was used for La Parde, and around 20% for the estate's third wine.
Barrel Sample -
Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of 65% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, brought up in 30% new French for 12 months, the 2017 La Parde Haut-Bailly is another charming, classic, high-quality wine that I'd be happy to drink. Ripe black cherries, blackberries, leafy herbs, tobacco leaf, and a kiss of loamy soil all emerge from the glass, and it's medium-bodied, has plenty of fruit, a good spine of acidity, and a clean finish. It's already delicious yet will benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age and evolve for over a decade.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 La Parde de Haut-Bailly is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon with 35% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it's scented of crushed blackcurrants, blackberries and pencil lead with touches of garrigue, bay leaves and dusty soil. The palate is medium-bodied, finely crafted and refreshing with lively red and black fruits in the mouth and an herbal lift on the finish.
Barrel Sample: 89-91
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.
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.