Chateau Haut-Bailly 2020

Almost wild on the nose, aromatic and expressive, you can tell this is a powerful, concentrated wine with dark fruits, graphite, fresh mint and medicinal herbal touches. Pure and focused, clean, lean and multifaceted, the flavours hit the palate then melt away, giving the floor to liquorice, cedar, tobacco and soft clove spices. I love the sleekness and the sense of seriousness that the 2020 has compared to the more 'look at me' 2019 at this point. The texture and depth make this wine, with vertical layers and excellent acidity. A profound wine.

Initially, you find a display of flowers before moving on to notes of cigar wrapper, spice, blackberry, currant, black cherry, smoke, and hints of forest leaf. Deeply concentrated, vibrant, and refined, the palate is packed with multiple layers of perfectly ripe red fruits, a fabulous sense of purity, silky, soft, polished tannins, and ample lift on the finish, providing the backdrop to age and evolve for decades. Drink from 2027–2060.

Deep ruby, opaque core, purple-purple, brightening at the rim. Fine black berry fruit, pleasant wood spices, nuances of blackberries and plums, a hint of vanilla; a multi-faceted bouquet. Complex, juicy, ripe cherries, silky, perfectly integrated tannins, shows a seamless texture, very good length and harmony, salty finish. Great future potential.

Kunz barrel sample 2021: concentrated, velvety, complex, dark bouquet; prunes, dark chocolate, dark tobacco, fine woods, currants, flint. Densely woven, multi-layered palate with powerful dark fruit, plenty of fine tannins, a concentrated, elegant structure, diverse, dense dark aromatics, very long, powerful, full finish. (19/20) 21: barrel sample; 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, plus 3% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. Violet on the outside – black at the core. Dramatic nose; smoke, pumpernickel, Arabica coffee in the background. Above that, black berries in every possible form vie for attention. Yet this wide-ranging aromatic profile is not intrusive, but exalted and already harmonious. On the palate, perfect. How can such a young wine, still a barrel sample, already radiate so much harmony? The acidity and tannins are already seamlessly integrated. All the components converge to create an endless length. As I searched for more words to describe it, the wine echoed again and again. I have been fortunate to taste more than 50 vintages of this “gentle giant” in my life. This will be the best edition in the history of this still underrated estate. (20/20)

Silky, creamy, dense, complex, and fresh bouquet with black cherries, prunes, currants, black tea, and mocha cream. A concentrated, multi-layered, creamy, velvety palate with a concentrated, layered structure, dense, dark, velvety fruit, a varied, powerful aromatic profile, and a very long, powerful finish with plenty of lingering flavors. 19/20 2028 - 2055

Deep plum colour, intense and reserved, this is poised and mouthwatering, with carved tannins. As it opens, the precise blackcurrant fruits soften to a sumptuous texture, while fennel and sage herbs wind through the palate, with oyster shell salinity and uplift on the finish. You could almost drink with a good carafe now, and yet there is a huge potential for ageing. A stunning wine. Harvest September 9 to 25. Axel Marchal and Valerie Lavigne consultants, Gabriel Vialard winemaker.

A blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot, the 2020 Haut-Bailly is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs a bit of swirling to coax out notions of black cherry compote, blackcurrant pastilles, and blackberry preserves, giving way to fragrant wafts of violets, dark chocolate, cardamom, and sassafras, with a touch of Indian spices. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in poise, delivering tightly wrapped black fruit, exotic spice and floral layers, with a super-plush texture and seamless acidity, finishing very long with loads of mineral sparks and tons of energy.

A hedonistic, welcoming bouquet with notes of blueberry and damson, followed by opulent flowers that bring a certain freshness. Deep and concentrated on the palate, sapid, fresh, fluid, with a vibrant, spicy finish.

Logo on the cork: A in a circle (Amorim)

If it has the charm of the previous vintage, its complexity is astonishing on tasting. It shows more density, more concentration, more power. A sanguine edge, crisp red cherry, and above all a fine-grained texture supported by bright acidity. Energy and class.

Superb, with particularly precise, delicate aromatics of spices and fresh berries; starts incredibly silky and fruity, then develops astonishing elegance and transparency despite the richness; the alcohol is perfectly integrated and the tannins have a mineral edge; one of the great wines of the year.

Another wine I underrated on release, the 2020 Château Haut-Bailly is just about pure perfection, and whereas the 2018 is closer in style to the 2009, this plays things a little closer to its vest and is reminiscent of the 2010. Full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it nevertheless cuts a focused, precise path across the palate and brings incredible purity in its darker fruits, smoked tobacco, cedar pencil, and Asian spice-driven aromas and flavors. The tannin quality here is off the charts, and this beauty has everything you could want from wine. It needs a solid 4-6 years (if not longer) to hit the early stages of its prime drinking window, and it's going to evolve for 50+ years.

If the 2020 has a challenge to meet, it’s the fact that I gave it 100/100 when bottled in December 2022. So, in this scenario, there are two of us who have a challenge to face. Sir Haut-Bailly and my humble self… rest assured, he worries far less than I do. The bouquet dazzles with purity, depth, and subtlety. Everything is so well arranged that one wonders whether it will ever go through a teenage crisis, like a rascal! And indeed, that would be its strictest right. Nevertheless, it is hard to keep so much grandeur under wraps. The bouquet heralds a brilliant wine, and the palate is delighted to take up the challenge; it smiles, so aware it is here to carry forward this exceptional 2020. The palate combines depth, breadth, power, charm, subtlety, finesse, and persistence. The level of precision is such that I wonder where I could possibly dock this wine… well, if I write ‘penalize’, that’s a rather vexing approach… at least for the wine, because personally I tell myself that 100 points are not a maximum, but a boundary (in this case, anyway)! Thank you to the wine for supporting me on this path destined to give me confidence. Haut-Bailly 2020 is one of the greatest 2020s in Bordeaux.

96–98. Barrel Sample. This wine's texture is exceptional, with powerful dark fruits and rich tannins blending seamlessly. All this density is cut with the finest spice and fresh acidity. The result is a wine that has both power and delicacy that gives a lift to the aftertaste. It will certainly age so well.