2023 La Mission Haut Brion
Buying options
Tasting Notes
The nose here is initially reticent, with notes of dried thyme and crushed rock, gradually revealing layers of grilled meat, rich red fruit and mineral tones. The palate is framed by steep yet ripe tannins, a pure and linear core of dark fruit, culminating in a driven, mineral-infused finish. Effortless and excellent. Aged in around 70% new oak, with 14.5% alcohol and 3.78pH. Blend: 52.7% Merlot, 29.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17.7% Cabernet Franc
Critic Scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
One of the finest wines in the vintage, the 2023 Château La Mission Haut-Brion is based on 52.7% Merlot, 29.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc. It's one hell of a gorgeous wine offering a massive nose of black raspberries, graphite, liquid flowers, scorched earth, and chocolate-like aromas and flavors. It delivers remarkable purity, full-bodied richness, no hard edges, and fine-grained, sweet tannins. The overall balance paired with opulence here is something to behold, and it’s incredible to find this level of quality in the vintage.
Blackberries, spice, smoke, flowers, and currants shine in the perfume. On the palate, the wine is concentrated, yet, refined, long, deep, and intense. There is a vibrancy to the fruits that pairs perfectly with the smoky, currants, and blackberries, There is depth, length, and volume, with an easy-going elegance, and lift, Nothing is pushed. Everything is balanced, and in place. The sneaky finish builds, lingers, and resonates its essence. Part of the success of the vintage is due to July, with its cloudy skies, which provided protection from the sun, helping to keep ABV levels down. In the cellars, the extraction was soft, at lower temperatures. The wine blends 52.7% Merlot, 29.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 17.7% Cabernet Franc, 14.5% ABV. 3.7 pH. Harvesting took place, September 6-October 3. Only 42% of the harvest was placed into the grand Vin.
A blend of 52.7% Merlot, 29.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 17.7% Cabernet Franc, La Mission Haut-Brion 2023 has a pH of 3.7 and a deep garnet-purple color. It slowly emerges from the glass with fragrant notes of ripe plums, boysenberries, and Morello cherries, opening out to a wonderfully evocative nose of Indian spices, fragrant soil, iron ore, and rose oil. The full-bodied palate is laden with ripe, opulent black fruit and exotic spices layers, lifted by red berry accents and ferrous sparks, framed by velvety tannins and finishing with epic length.
Related articles
About the producer
Ch. la Mission Haut-Brion – sister estate of Ch. Haut-Brion and part of the Clarence Dillon stable – is one of the greatest estates in all of Bordeaux. Based in Pessac-Léognan but not officially classified, it produces outstanding red and white wines.