2016 Château Haut-Bailly

Description

98   Jeb Dunnuck
“Matching the brilliant 2015, the 2016 Château Haut Bailly checks in as a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc brought up in 60% new French oak. This sensational effort boasts a deep purple color as well as a massive bouquet of crème de cassis, tobacco leaf, crushed flowers, and graphite, with just hints of smoky earth emerging with time in the glass. Deep, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated, it’s nevertheless all about finesse and elegant, and this beauty just glides across the palate. Reminding me a little bit of the 2009 with its textural richness and length, it’s another awesome wine from Véronique Sanders that’s capable of keeping for 30+ years.” (2/2019)

98   James Suckling
“Wonderful aromas of tobacco, sweet fruit and licorice follow through to a full body with ultra-fine tannins that caress every inch of your palate. Love the length and subtlety to this young wine. Gorgeous.” (2/2019)

98   Lisa Perrotti-Brown for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“The 2016 Haut-Bailly is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. The nose opens with beautiful floral notes of violets and lavender accented with earthy notions and sparks of crushed rocks over a core of kirsch, cassis and wild blueberries. Full-bodied, rich and seductive, it has layer upon layer of red, black and blue fruits intermingled with earth and mineral hints leading to a very long, perfumed finish.” (11/2018)

97+   Antonio Galloni for Vinous
“A big, vertical wine, the 2016 Haut-Bailly explodes onto the palate with tremendous depth and intensity. Readers should be in no rush to drink the 2016, as it won’t be close to ready to drink for at least a decade, and I say that as an eternal optimist. Black cherry, smoke, tobacco, cedar, gravel and incense add to the wine’s decidedly somber personality.” (1/2019)

97   Neal Martin for Vinous
“The 2016 Haut-Bailly was mightily impressive when tasted from barrel. Now, matured in 50% new oak and bottled at the end of April 2018 (they prefer to bottle before spring here), it has a very well defined bouquet of black fruit, graphite, crushed stone and light rose petal aromas that gain intensity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with quite grippy tannin. This Haut-Bailly feels pure and classic in style, offering well-judged acidity and a sophisticated, quite tensile finish that lingers long in the mouth. I suspect this might close down in a year or two and deserves perhaps 8 to 10 years in bottle to show what it can really do. The best Haut-Bailly in the modern era? For certain.”

96   Jane Anson for Decanter
“Easily the best one Pessacs in this vintage, although less concentrated than the same wine in 2015, 2016 and 2018. But that’s not to take away from the achievement here – this has real elegance and feels not only effortless but ripe, with lovely brushed damson and blueberry fruits, with a smoky edge of cigar and gunsmoke that is totally delicious. 4% Cabernet Franc completes the blend. The yield was 28hl/ha overall, but only 2hl/ha on the plots that suffered from frost, compared to 40hl/ha for the unaffected areas – a clear division that made it easy to ensure no frosted grapes were used in this wine. Drinking Window 2024 – 2042” (9/2019)

95   James Molesworth for Wine Spectator
“This is energetic and grippy, with tar and melted licorice notes wrapped around a core of bramble, red currant paste and black cherry preserve flavors. The tarry edge reemerges on the finish, working with a singed apple wood element to give this solid drive through the finish.” (3/2019)