Winemaker Notes
The yield of Cabernet Sauvignon was lower than average due to the small size of the berries. The wines are very expressive and well-structured. The Merlot wines are quite rich, with black fruit aromas and plenty of tannin. Petit Verdot, which needs more water than the other varieties during ripening, contributes a certain tannic vivaciousness.
Blend: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This estate dating to the 12th century is enjoying a new era with recent releases, including this. The wine is dense and structured, packed with dark plum-skin flavors and rich tannins. It has a promising future and shouldn’t be drunk before 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Quite ripe but well-focused, with tarry edges harnessing the currant and blackberry paste flavors. Licorice and apple wood notes frame the finish.
Barrel Sample: 92-95 -
Decanter
Lovely dark plum colour and rich texture. This has clear austerity and is still as discreet as it felt en primeur. Attractive smoke and even slight tar edging; really needs time to soften and show its more inviting fruits. 30% new oak. Drinking Window 2026 - 2040
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James Suckling
A beautiful, tight young wine, yet it delivers plenty of plum, chocolate, walnut and forest-floor character. It’s full-bodied, but so poised and refined. Nicely crafted. Try after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Olivier has a wonderfully intense perfume of kirsch, Black Forest cake, black raspberries and cassis, with suggestions of red roses, pencil shavings and underbrush. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock-full of ripe, expressive black and red berry layers, supported by finely grained tannin's and well-knit freshness, finishing with great length and purity.
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.