This wine is currently only available Duty Paid
Need help? Call +44 (0)20 7793 7900 or email wine@goedhuiswaddesdon.com.
What tender, sweet, berry-scented fruit on the nose! This is a bewitching 2005, with beautifully fine, powdery tannins and a lithe body. Effortless, and absolutely delicious.
What tender, sweet, berry-scented fruit on the nose! This is a bewitching 2005, with beautifully fine, powdery tannins and a lithe body. Effortless, and absolutely delicious.
True to château style, the 2005 La Mission Haut Brion is more masculine than the feminine and elegant Haut Brion. A powerhouse on every level, it has superfine tannins and a robust structure that is fleshed out by a wonderfully sweet mid-palate. Jean-Philippe Delmas compared 2005 to the 1961 in regards to tannin levels and ripeness. Another star in the making. Drink 2015 - 2030+.
The 2005 La Mission Haut-Brion is unquestionably one of the wines of the vintage. Effusive aromatics and bright, red-toned fruit make a strong first impression. A wine of vertical intensity and explosive energy, the 2005 is a towering masterpiece. Today it is just at the beginning of a long drinking window that will last another few decades. Red cherry, plum, leather, spice, gravel, smoke, blood orange and pomegranate infuse the palate staining finish. In 2005, La Mission is a wine that satisfies all the senses, from the intellectual to the hedonistic. Magnificent.
The 2005 La Mission Haut-Brion is pure perfection. It has an absolutely extraordinary nose of sweet blackberries, cassis and spring flowers with some underlying minerality, a full-bodied mouthfeel, gorgeously velvety tannins (which is unusual in this vintage) and a long, textured, multi-layered finish that must last 50+ seconds. This is a fabulous wine and a great effort from this hallowed terroir. Drink this modern-day legend over the next 30+ years. Only 5,500 cases were produced of this blend of 69% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc. Drink: 2015-2045
There are slightly more than 5,000 cases of the 2005 La Mission-Haut-Brion, a blend of 69% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and a touch of Cabernet Franc. While there is little difference between La Mission and Haut-Brion's terroirs (their vineyards are only separated by a two-lane road), LaMission possesses more fat, texture, and intensity. An enormously endowed wine with huge tannin and structure, the 2005 offers a quintessential Graves bouquet of burning embers, charcoal, blackberries, truffles, black currants, and a meaty character. Reminiscent of the 1989, with more structure as well as a longer window of drinkability, the 2005 may be a modern day, improved version of a vintage such as 1955, which was well-endowed, very tannic, and took a long time to come around. While fabulously full-bodied and unctuous, the 2005 will not provide much charm in its youth. It needs 8-10 years of cellaring, and should age effortlessly for 30-40 years. Drink: 2016 - 2048. The rivalry between the two great Pessac-Leognan estates of Haut-Brion and La Mission-Haut-Brion continues despite the fact that since 1983, both wines have been made by the same winemaking team. Jean-Bernard Delmas has moved fifty miles north to Montrose, but his son, Jean-Philippe, has produced both wines following the 2003 vintage. La Mission is obviously made in a different style than Haut-Brion. It will never have as much nuance and nobility aromatically. It does possess more muscle, concentration, and opulence than Haut-Brion, but both offer prodigious styles of wine.
The 2005 La Mission-Haut-Brion is even more impressive this year than it was in 2006. There are approximately 5,500 cases of this blend of 69% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1% Cabernet Franc. Jean-Philippe Delmas told me that for the first time in this vineyard's history, the entirevineyard was seriously crop-thinned. The result is a wine that is reminiscent of the 1989, but with more structure, muscle, and tannin. However, the tannin is sweet – a good sign in a wine with such extraordinary power and richness. Scorched earth, blueberries, blackberries, and a hint of truffles appear in the staggering aromatics. The wine is massive in the mouth, with incredible fat and richness as well as mouth-searing levels of velvety tannin in the finish. Even though the fruit is wonderfully ripe and the texture is unctuous, this stunning offering will not be drinkable for 6-7 years, and should keep for 25 years thereafter. Drink 2013-2038
The deep ruby/purple-hued 2005 La Mission-Haut-Brion is the finest offering from this estate since the 2000, a vintage it resembles in power, muscle, and structure. A gorgeous perfume of creosote, blueberries, and black fruits is followed by powerful, full-bodied flavors with great purity as well as remarkable freshness. Already revealing a certain unctuosity and thickness, it should continue to put on weight and develop magnificently for 25-30+ years. La Missions staff believes it is more similar to the 1990 than 2000, but it is too early for me to agree or disagree. Nevertheless, this is a profound La Mission-Haut-Brion. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2030+.
69% M 30% CS 1% CF (55% grand vin) A little more Merlot than usual. Crimson with some paleness at the rim. Extraordinary combination of almost super-ripe notes and freshness. This just walks on air! It has the guts and density underneath for the usual La Mission long life but seduces utterly with its initial aerien impression. Quite extraordinary. Still quite a weight of very fine tannins underneath. Very long and precise and very finely etched. A bit more 'pointed' than the Haut-Brion. Drink 2017-40.
Loads of crushed berries and flowers on the nose. Very sweet dark fruits. Full-bodied, with amazing concentration of fruit. Big, silky tannins. The depth of fruit is there. Dig down and find it. The richest La Mission ever.
Stretching from the rather unglamorous southern suburbs of Bordeaux, for 50 km along the left bank of the river Garonne, lies Graves. Named for its gravelly soil, a relic of Ice Age glaciers, this is the birthplace of claret, despatched from the Middle Ages onwards from the nearby quayside to England in vast quantities. It can feel as though Bordeaux is just about red wines, but some sensational white wines are produced in this area from a blend of sauvignon blanc, Semillon and, occasionally, muscadelle grapes, often fermented and aged in barrel. In particular, Domaine de Chevalier is renowned for its superbly complex whites, which continue to develop in bottle over decades. A premium appellation, Pessac-Leognan, was created in 1987 for the most prestigious terroirs within Graves. These are soils with exceptional drainage, made up of gravel terraces built up in layers over many millennia, and consequently thrive in mediocre vintages but are less likely to perform well in hotter years. These wines were appraised and graded in their own classification system in 1953 and updated in 1959, but, like the 1855 classification system, this should be regarded with caution and the wines must absolutely be assessed on their own current merits.
