Winemaker Notes
The color is dark amaranth red, deep and dense. The nose is powerful and intense. It opens with enveloping roasted and caramel notes. It's very pure and racy. On the palate, the attack is full and melting. The wine is remarkably silky, with a typical fruitiness of blackberries. Notes of cedar and a slight salinity bring freshness. The finish seems interminable with a remarkable persistence for its elegance.
Blend: 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Showing beautifully, the 2018 Château Larrivet Haut-Brion sports a dense purple hue as well as a ripe, concentrated, sweetly fruited style to go with classic Pessac notes of sweet tobacco, blackcurrants, damp earth, chocolate, and charcoal. It has a solid sense of purity and freshness, plenty of ripe, sunny fruit, and classy, seamless tannins, all pointing toward a long drink window. I think it's a step up over the 2016. Enjoy bottles over the coming 20-25 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Black fruits and tannins combine well in this structured wine. There is a succulent character to the fruit, with acidity and a fresh aftertaste working together. Still young, the wine should be ready from 2026.
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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.
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James Suckling
Spiced cherry, blackcurrant, dried oyster, black olive and bark on the nose. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm, creamy tannins. Chewy and flavorful with a savory, mineral finish.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and fresh, with a pretty beam of red currant and damson plum fruit lined with savory and mineral notes. Subtle tar hint on the finish adds some sneaky length. Nicely done.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2018 Larrivet Haut-Brion reveals a very pretty nose of kirsch, redcurrant jelly and Black Forest cake, followed by emerging cassis, aniseed, bouquet garni and tree bark notes. The medium-bodied palate is delicately played with soft-spoken red and black fruits and herbal accents, framed by firm, fine-grained tannins and loads of freshness, finishing long and lifted.
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.