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Goedhuis, April 2023, Score: 98-100
Quite simply a wine of joyous sophistication. It has a fragrance of spring flowers, red berries, bright cherry and olallieberry. The initial sensation of lacelike texture immediately excites and unfurls into a symphony of flavours and nuances, refined and silky withs a velvet-like volume. The wine keeps evolving in the palate, showing a perfect composition between fruit, richness, weight, and energy. Hedonistic and yet sophisticated, this is so classy and statuesque on the finish. There is no doubting this superb wine’s First Growth credentials.
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Neal Martin, April 2023, Score: 96-98
The 2022 Haut-Brion, matured in 70% new oak, represents the 99th vintage under three generations of the Delmas family (see my recently published book for a remarkable photo of the first). It has slightly darker fruit than the La Mission at the moment. Incense and potpourri infuse the black plum and bilberry. There's a touch of brine in the background. It manifests more and more complexity as it opens in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied and is blessed with unerring symmetry. It has a bewitching granular texture, complex and more focused than recent vintages, and comes across as almost pixelated on the finish. Quintessential Haut-Brion. Magnificent, but not necessarily the best wine that Delmas oversaw in this vintage. Drink 2030-2065
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Antonio Galloni, January 2025, Score: 98+
The 2022 Haut-Brion is powerful and explosive. At the same time, it is incredibly reticent. None of that should be of concern for readers who can wait. Black-toned fruit, gravel, incense, scorched earth and licorice all stain the palate, framed by impenetrable, imposing tannins. A vertical, explosive wine, the 2022 is going to need a number of years to be at its best. I suspect it will be magnificent in many years' time. The Haut-Brion softens with a bit of time in the glass, but it remains very much a blockbuster.
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Antonio Galloni, April 2023, Score: 97-99
The 2022 Haut-Brion comes across as a bit restrained, given the natural opulence of the year and the other wines in the Clarence Dillon portfolio. Deep and wonderfully layered, the 2022 possesses remarkable depth but also a bit less of the explosive energy that is such a Haut-Brion signature. I suspect that will come in time, as the 2022 starts to show quite a bit better with a little aeration. Violet, gravel, incense, leather, tobacco and scorched earth linger. Superb. Drink 2025-2062.
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Wine Advocate, March 2025, Score: 97+
The 2022 Haut-Brion, which was bottled in May 2024, lives up to the high expectations I had set for it and then some. Revealing a dense, complex and precise bouquet of dark berries, pencil lead, cedar box, rose and spices intertwined with discreet notes of oak, it's full-bodied, dense and concentrated, with a muscular chassis of tannins and an enveloping core of fruit that retains energy and purity, concluding with youthful grip. Given the inherent quality of the terroir, time is likely to be very kind to this vintage, allowing it to integrate and mature gracefully.
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Wine Advocate, April 2023, Score: 95-97
The 2022 Haut-Brion shows considerable promise, revealing aromas of dark berries and plums mingled with notions of pencil lead, licorice, tobacco leaf, spices and incense. Full-bodied, broad and seamless, it's rich and muscular, with a deep, layered core of fruit framed by an ample endowment of tannin. This blend of 53.6% Merlot, 35.4% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cabernet Franc, the result is a lip-smacking exemplification of controlled power. Analytically, the 2022 possesses a similar level of tannins to the 2010, and a similar pH to the 2009, yet it is more suave and polished than the 2010 at the same stage, and seemingly more dynamic than the 2009.
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James Suckling, April 2023, Score: 98-99
Currants and cedar with sandalwood and peaches. Fascinating aromas. Violets. Full-bodied with a crunchy and electric palate of primary fruit, with hints of tangerines and citrus. Great finish with structure and polish. 53.6% merlot, 35.4% cabernet sauvignon and 11% cabernet franc. Interesting to have such high merlot in the blend.
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Decanter, April 2023, Score: 96
Milk chocolate and blackcurrants on the nose, fragrant ripe black cherries and some floral notes. Sleek, supple, suave, really confident and shiny. This keeps the tension more than La Mission at this point with a vein of freshness and intensity. It’s not out to charm but it’s out to impress. Excellent construction, clean depth and power, tense, strict and streamlined, a touch of creaminess and saltiness. You get waves of flavour intensity with ripe, concentrated fruit, soft acidity and a clean stone freshness. Tannins fill the mouth with edges of both minerality and toasted spices. Calm and controlled, impressive with focus. 3.8pH. A yield of 35hl/ha.
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Matthew Jukes, April 2023, Score: 19+
This was the second earliest harvest ever at Haut-Brion There was minimal frost at Haut-Brion in 2022. The lower-than-normal yields resulted from the drought, but despite the high temperatures, the vines were resplendent with green leaves and bursting with health throughout the season. They found water deep below the surface. Of course, Haut-Brion had its viti-team on standby, just in case, throughout the summer, poised to rush out and administer assistance to any precious vines in need, but in the end, they sat back and barely touched the vines. In contrast to La Mission, Haut-Brion leads with a Merlot fanfare. While the statistics above do not lie, this wine does not have a plump, juicy Merlot-driven character. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking it was Cab-dominant, given the strictness and firmness of the palate. Stunning, dry, teasingly closed and yet knowingly flirty, there are glimpses of beautifully tender fruit among the hard edges, keeping you on the edge of your seat. It also possesses some of the most refined tannins I have seen in this vintage, but because the volume of flavour is so potent, the delivery of tannins appears to be gentle and civilised. This will be an incredible wine when it loses its tension in a couple of decades, so please do not open a bottle before 2040.
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Jancis Robinson, April 2023, Score: 18
Hallmark Haut-Brion opulence of texture. Powerful tannic frame behind. Lovely depth of fruit. Dark- and red-fruit notes with a touch of liquorice as it opens. Complex, powerful and persistent with enough freshness to provide balance. (James Lawther MW) Drink 2034 – 2055
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Jeb Dunnuck, April 2023, Score: 96-98
Slightly better than its sibling La Mission Haut-Brion, the 2022 Château Haut-Brion has a full-bodied, concentrated, structured style that's going to demand bottle age. Cassis, graphite, scorched earth, and tobacco are just some of its nuances aromatically, and it shows the ripe, powerful style of the vintage. There are lots of tannins here, especially on the finish, and it's going to need 7-8 years in the cellar.
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Jane Anson, April 2023, Score: 96
Stately, inky colour, this is impressively vivid and energetic despite the intensity of the construction. Fresh fig character, black chocoate, cinnammon, turmeric, creamy bilberry and blackberry fruits, with clove and sandalwood spice, and a slow build of texture and contrast from the slate tannins as they draw out the flavours. Harvest August 29-19 September. 3.9ph. Less Cabernet Sauvignon than usual due to tiny yields,
