A third « worker ride » in the Pessac-Leognan appellation for tastings of the 2019 vintage with my sidekick Guy Charneau (early July 2020):

This « middle mountain » of the Bordeaux region signs for this vintage the right balance expected following the tastings of the 2 Rives last 2 weeks. Indeed it represents a taste symbiosis of the entire Bordeaux region, especially grandiose for the Château Haut-Brion 1st Grand Cru Classé, and being more precise, that of the Mission Haut-Brion Grand Cru Classified in red as in white.

We are personally received by the head of public relations of Château Haut-Brion, Madame Hoel Alcaras, to taste a dozen chiseled vintages.

We start with the series of reds with the Château Quintus in Saint-Emilion in Grand Cru belonging to the big brand. A promising field that never ceases to produce quality wines that are always on the rise of vintage after vintage. This one asserts a perfect righteousness, still austere for the moment, but portends once opened, a red rivaling the greatest of its appellation. Le Dragon de Quintus, when it is already very olfactory, with an assertive and seductive taste tension.

We attack the tasting of that of La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion to discover a real sensuality both on the nose and in the mouth, like a feminine caress, like the sensation of a floral bouquet with white pepper.

Then Le Clarence de Haut-Brion, where the triptych of the usual Bordeaux grapes varieties reminds us of the solar sensation of 2009 and the firm tension of 2010, with a mouth with finely masculine aromatic sensuality.

Château Haut-Brion red exemplifies exuberant floral mastery in all its beauty. Roundness and volume join in absolute grace, the tannins are totally melted. Then the white with a very open bouquet comes in the mouth with the opulence, the richness, the length keeping the right rightness expected to get a real pleasure from its young age of tasting.

Finally, the red and white Mission Haut-Brion propels us to the 7th heaven by delivering a very complex vintage combining tenderness, richness, density and a superb spicy peppery tension. Two airy wines without exuberance, with perfect righteousness, a feeling of fruit and flowers fused, a « Mission » at the pinnacle of bachic success in the Bordeaux region.

At the end of the morning, we were received by the director Laurent Lebrun of Château Olivier Grand Cru Classé for a very informative tour of the estate and its history, as well as its future of haute couture allure in the image of its white and red wines.

The tasting of these adjoins with pleasure with the 2 colors of Château Haut-Brion itself. Grace and wealth are signed in luxuriance drawn with four pins. It is also wines with a value for money very well studied.

I chose La Mission Haut-Brion red 2019 with the musical accord according to Wine4Melomanes, the jazz song of the same vintage:

I Still Believe by artist Ashley Henry to highlight the perfection and complexity of the wine tasted.