Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A refined, silky red with currant, chocolate, walnut and leaf aromas and flavors. Medium to full body with very fine tannins and a polished, refined finish. Very sleek and creamy. It really sneaks up at the end. Better after 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and rich, but suave and elegant in style, letting its range of steeped plum, warmed cassis and mulled black cherry fruit play out slowly while sweet tobacco, incense and black tea notes swirl about. Very finely beaded acidity stretches out the finish. Hard to resist now, but this has some time to develop. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2034.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A rocking second wine, the 2018 Le Clarence De Haut-Brion (58% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) offers lots of ripe blackcurrants, cassis, damp earth, tobacco leaf, violets, and spring flower-like aromas and flavors. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured, and elegant on the palate, it's a more focused, backward wine than the La Chapelle de la Mission Haut-Brion and needs 4-5 years of bottle age (at a minimum) and will evolve for 20+ years or more. Rating : 93+
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Decanter
Broad-shouldered, with impact and a fairly swift tannic build-up. The construction is clearly laid out, with spicy, concentrated rosemary and cinnamon, and ripe berry and fig fruit character. A confident Le Clarence, if a little marked by a hot summer. Ageing in 20% new barrels. 36.7% of production. Drinking Window 2022 - 2040
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Le Clarence de Haut-Brion is composed of 58.2% Merlot, 28.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9.7% Cabernet Franc and 3.6% Petit-Verdot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it jumps up out of the glass with exuberant notes of black cherry compote, baked plums and blackberry pie, plus hints of star anise, underbrush and charcoal. The medium to full-bodied palate has impressive freshness with finely grained tannin's supporting the juicy black fruits, finishing on an earthy note. Rating : 92+
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.