2004 Haut-Brion

Wine Details
Producer

Haut-Brion

Place of Origin

France

Pessac Léognan

Bordeaux

Color

Red

Grape/Blend

52.3% Merlot, 38.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9.1% Cabernet Franc (2023 vintage)

Reviews & Tasting Notes

00

Subscriber Access Only

or Sign Up

You'll Find The Article Name Here

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer vitae aliquam odio. Aliquam purus diam, tempor et consectetur vitae, eleifend ac quam. Proin nec mauris ac odio iaculis semper. Integer posuere pharetra aliquet. Nullam tincidunt sagittis est in maximus. Donec sem orci, vulputate ac quam non, consectetur fermentum diam. In dignissim magna id orci dignissim convallis. Integer sit amet placerat dui. Aliquam pharetra ornare nulla at vulputate. Sed dictum, mi eget fringilla lacinia, nisl tortor condimentum mi, vitae ultrices quam diam ac neque. Donec hendrerit vulputate felis, fringilla varius massa.

- By Author Name on Month Date, Year

The big news at Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion is that La Tour Haut-Brion will no longer be made after the 2005 vintage. The six hectares of vines will in theory be available for La Mission, although in 2006 this juice also went into La Chapelle Haut-Brion, La Mission's second wine. "La Tour Haut-Brion was not our most-demanded wine," explained estate manager Jean-Philippe Delmas. "During the ownership of the Woltners, this used to be the second wine of La Mission, but then my father created La Chapelle in 1991 as a second wine. La Tour Haut-Brion never really existed as a cru, so it's a disappearance that's not really a disappearance." As in so many recent vintages, Haut-Brion and La Mission benefited from their protected, warmer microclimate within the city limits of Bordeaux: the merlot here was harvested concentrated and rich during the second week of September, with one cuve reaching nearly 16% potential alcohol. "We then waited from September 15 until September 21 to start bringing in the cabernet sauvignon," said Delmas. "The cabernet had a bit less sugar than the merlot but was as rich in tannins and still as high in alcohol as the 2005 had been." Enologist Jean-Philippe Masclet told me that he was very careful about extraction in 2006, keeping the fermentation temperature of the merlot to 26oC and doing a shorter-than-normal cuvaison of just 15 days for the cabernet. The '06s will be bottled with alcohol, acid and tannin levels similar to those of the 2005s, he added, but with higher pH. By the way, the two white wines made here are potentially extraordinary; the fruit was picked in a leisurely fashion between August 29 and September 12, mostly in very warm, dry weather.

See more reviews