Château Haut-Brion 2013

50% Merlot, 45.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.5% Cabernet Franc Rouge rubis aux reflets violets. Bouquet fruité, filigrane. Notes de framboise et fraise, agréable touche de moka. Attaque fruitée et légèrement friande. Belle trame tannique en accord avec la structure. Elle apparaît tardivement en fin de bouche et est granuleuse. Le fruit se révèle en fin de bouche. Un vin impressionnant de par sa masse tannique mais aussi sa vigueur. A suivre, car il est très prometteur et doté d’un potentiel à ne pas sous-estimer. Une fois assoupli il sera même séduisant, mais il faudra savoir être patient. 2020-2048. Décembre 2015.

This wine is structured with impressively ripe fruit. Black-plum juice and blackberries are balanced with a strong tannic content that gives the wine backbone and structure. It has weight, although with its already exuberant fruitiness, it is not likely to be really long-term wine. Drink from 2024. From 120 acres, only the best grapes go into this top wine and 2013 was a smaller crop than the average (10,000 to 12,000 cases). Believed to be the oldest of the five Bordeaux first growths, Haut-Brion has been in the Clarence Dillon family since 1935. The current president is Prince Robert de Luxembourg. — Roger Voss. January 2016.

Superb colour, lovely earthy black fruit spices nose, wonderful texture of velvety fruit in the La Tâche style, with tannins for the future, undeniable depth and class. Drinking window: 2018 - 2035. Steven Spurrier. February 2023.

Couleur sombre, intense et belle. Superbe nez fumé, fruité, précis et même éclatant. Jolie entrée en bouche où le vin se développe présent, savoureux, juteux et très fruité en milieu de bouche. Tannicité un brin austère en finale, avec un beau retour aromatique derrière. Mars 2016.

The 2013 Haut Brion has perhaps a little more complexity on the nose compared to the 2013 La Mission Haut-Brion at the moment. There is more depth and plenty of attractive fruit: cranberry, wild strawberry, hickory and a scintilla of scorched earth that becomes quite peaty with time. It is well defined and shows impressive focus. The palate is very well balanced with tensile tannin, a keen thread of acidity, lively in the mouth with more weight and presence than La Mission, though perhaps without quite the same precision at the moment. It still cuts away just a little short on the finish, but this is a decent Haut-Brion that may pull ahead of its "sibling" with bottle age. Drinking window: 2020 - 2035. Neal Martin. October 2016