Haut Brion 2000

Pessac-Leognan, First Growth

Excel download

View All Vintages of this Wine

Units Size Case size GBP Price: Quantities Buy
12 75cl Bottle Case 12 £6,050 per Case Case [Add to shopping basket]
Tasting Notes

Tasted blind at Bordeaux Index’s 2000 tasting in London. A pure, finely tuned, delineated nose with touches of leather, clove and mint embroidered into the black brambly fruit, wisps of espresso with time. The palate is full-bodied with firm, grippy tannins, very good weight but quite austere and straight-laced. Good acidity though, touches of graphite and smoke towards the weighty finish that loosens up with time. Pencil lead on the aftertaste with breathtaking persistency. Classy - very classy, perhaps more so than La Mission at the moment, although in the long-term - we will see.

Score: 97

Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2015-2045 01 September 2010

Its bigger sister, the 2000 Haut-Brion (a blend of 51% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc) showed incredibly at the tasting, and for me is one of the three or four most prodigious wines of the vintage. A compelling nose of roasted herbs, scorched earth, sweet blueberries, plums, black currants, and a hint of graphite is followed by a deep, layered, sumptuously textured, full-bodied Haut-Brion, but one with extraordinary complexity. This wine seems more evolved and approachable than I had expected it to be at age 10. My window of maturity seven years ago was 2012-2040, but I would change that to 2010-2050. Haut-Brion can be among the trickiest Bordeaux to taste young, often needing a full decade before the extraordinary complexity that marks this terroir begins to emerge. I was thrilled to see how well both the second wine, Bahans Haut-Brion, and Haut-Brion performed in this tasting, and both scores are slight upgrades.

Score: 99

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2010-2050 01 June 2010

It will always be tempting to compare the 2000 Haut-Brion with the perfect 2000 La Mission Haut-Brion. However, it is not as fat, unctuous, flamboyant, or voluminous as La Mission. Yet, like a great diplomat, it is a wine of intensity, authority, and measured restraint. A supremely elegant offering, its dense ruby/purple color, and burgeoning perfume of scorched earth, liquid minerals, plums, black currants, cherries, lead pencil, and subtle spicy oak are followed by a delicate yet powerfully flavorful, multi-layered, highly nuanced, and extraordinarily pure and seamless wine. There have been so many recent classics from Haut-Brion, it is premature to suggest the 2000 is better than the 1998, 1995, 1990, or 1989, but it is certainly a prodigious wine of dazzling persistence, length, and complexity. A blend of 51% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Cabernet Franc, it should prove to be uncommonly long-lived, even by the standards of Haut-Brion. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2040.

Score: 98

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2012-2040 01 April 2003

More orange than the La Mission 2000. Lighter, more fragrant than the La Mission 2000. Apparently much readier. More readable but utterly true to its origins. Very racy and racehorse like. Exceedingly long and subtle. Some pepper. (18+ Points)

Score: 18

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2012-2030 23 March 2010