CHÂTEAU HAUT BRION
2014 1er Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan
50% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon - this has a real presence and sense of poised grandeur. There is a lovely frame to the blueberry and raspberry fruit - some floral character of violets and roses too - so complex. A lovely mineral crunch adds another dimension, this is measured, polished and beautifully concentrated. Rating: 94 L&S (Apr 2015)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2014 Haut-Brion is moving into its drinking plateau on the nose, which is now entirely open. Tertiary red fruit mixes with fennel, iron filings and a touch of Moroccan spice. Very fine delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins. It's a little sweeter and, as I commented before, a little medicinal in style, with hints of aniseed developing towards the finish. This is a mellow Haut-Brion, and it is very well crafted, but is there a gap between this and other high-performing Pessac-Léognan wines? Not in this vintage. Tasted at Bordeaux Index's 10-Year-On tasting. Drinking range: 2024 - 2050 Rating: 93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Mar 2024)
Haut-Brion is more concentrated and intense than Mission Haut-Brion, more bedded down even at 10 years old, and somehow delivers an extra punch. Absolutely a materclass in controlled exuberance, this has concentrated cigar box, graphite and cocoa bean, touches of mandarin peel, bitter espresso and fennel, well-controlled tannic frame but so well delivered, it's hard to resist. Jean-Philippe Delmas estate director, Jean-Philippe Masclef technical director. Drinking range: 2025 - 2048 Rating: 96 Jane Anson, Decanter (Feb 2024)
The 2014 Haut-Brion has a generous, quite rich bouquet, a little leathery with just a suggestion of menthol that I have remarked upon in previous bottles. It is attractive but quite open and forward for such a young wine. The palate is medium-bodied with a menthol-tinged entry that sets you up for a very medicinal wine. It is nicely balanced with crisp acidity and quite a savoury, herbal finish that does not quite reflect the vintage. This showed better a few months ago. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2025 - 2060 Rating: 93+ Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2018)
Lots of development at the rim. Meaty and interesting with some saline quality and some veginess. Really appetising and unforced. Smooth as a baby’s bottom. Quite long but very definitely understated. 21st-century wine! Long. Very rich and exciting. Though dry on the end. Drinking range: 2023 - 2043 Rating: 18.5 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Feb 2018)
One of the stars of the vintage, the 2014 Haut-Brion is an exceptionally beautiful and vivid wine. Super-ripe dark cherry, plum, tobacco and menthol are some of the notes that run through the 2014. Just as it did from barrel, the 2014 boasts tons of opulence, intensity and richness. Dried flowers, tobacco, menthol, licorice and smoke wrap around the huge, baritone-inflected finish. Readers should not be in any rush with the 2014, as it is likely to require a number of years before it even starts to drink well. The blend is 50 % Merlot, 39 % Cabernet Sauvignon and 11 % Cabernet Franc. Drinking range: 2026 - 2054 Rating: 97 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2017)
Loaded with warm tar, singed juniper, plum reduction and cassis notes that are perfectly melded, giving this a remarkably supple edge. The finish lets tobacco, bay leaf and incense accents glide in. Shows lovely mouthfeel and superior refinement overall. Best from 2020 through 2035. 10,800 cases made Drinking range: 2020 - 2035 Rating: 96 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Jan 2017)
The Château Haut-Brion 2014 is a blend of 50% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 39% Cabernet Sauvignon picked between 11 September and 10 October cropped at 42.9 hectoliters per hectare raised in 70% new oak (Jean-Philippe Delmas has been lowering the new oak in recent vintages.) The fruit seems a little “redder” than La Mission at this stage with vibrant wild strawberry, blackcurrant and a pinch of dry tobacco, a hint of menthol developing with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, that tobacco element becoming a little stronger in the mouth, a little foursquare but like La Mission Haut-Brion, focusing upon precision rather than power. Of course, a superb contribution to the vintage, but I'd place my bets on the "Mish", at least on these barrel tastings. Drinking range: 2019 - 2040 Rating: 93-95 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2015)
50% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc. Full and deep damson and plum, with black pepper, smoke notes, touches of bramble, with a beautiful tannic hold and life on the finish. Deft, elegant, rich and complex but deceptive in terms of ageing as the tannins are fine but mounting and plentiful. Confident handling of the vintage. (Outstanding Pessac-Léognan, Decanter.) Drinking range: 2025 - 2045 Rating: 95+ Steven Spurrier (Apr 2015)
The 2014 Haut-Brion is one of the truly viscerally thrilling wines of the vintage. A host of smoke, graphite, licorice and black stone fruit notes hit the palate in a towering, majestic wine of the highest level. Opulent yet also massively tannic, with pulsating acidity in support, the 2014 is absolutely impeccable. Violets, lavender, smoke and savory herbs are some of the notes that add nuance as the wine builds to a rapturous, explosive finish. Readers fortunate enough to find the 2014 can look forward to several decades of pure drinking pleasure. The blend is 50% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cabernet Franc. Rating: 94-97 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2015)
Mid to deep crimson. Not very forthcoming on the nose. Broad burly flavours on the palate, very much in the baked-brick spectrum. Well-managed tannins and in this wine the acidity is not especially marked. But it’s no charmer. Very dry on the end. Drinking range: 2025 - 2042 Rating: 17.5+ Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2015)
Merlot 50% Cabernet Franc 11% Cabernet Sauvignon 39% Black fruits dominate the nose floral fragrant slightly smoky with lots of violets. The fruit on the palate is sweet the tannins fine the mid palate rich with depth suppleness. There is lovely balance freshness under the richness and although light and elegant at the back the finish has depth of flavour. Drinking range: 2025 - 2040 Rating: 93-96 Derek Smedley MW, www.dereksmedleymw.co.uk (Apr 2015)
Haut-Brion is often the least showy of the first growths at this stage and that's the case once more in 2014. It's a pretty backward wine, dominated by acidity and tannin at the moment, but with its grassy, leafy fruit lying just below the surface. Elegant and restrained, it's a connoisseur's red. (One of Tim's Top 10 Left Bank Reds.) Drinking range: 2025 - 2035 Rating: 96 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Apr 2015)
Dense and tight now with blackberries, blueberries, iodine, minerals and currants. Full-bodied, firm and closed, yet there’s a persistence and length that is most impressive. Polished and very classy. Rating: 95-96 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Mar 2015)
Château Haut Brion
1855 classification - Premier Grand Cru Classé Château Haut Brion is famously the only estate in Graves to have featured in the 1855 classification reflecting a long established reputation, even if, at the time, the crown was beginning to slip. During the 16th Century, Haut-Brion was briefly owned by Jean de Ségur of the Ségur family who at various times owned both Lafite and Latour. Jean de Pontac inherited Haut Brion as a wedding dowry in 1525 and, apart from a brief period during the French Revolution, his descendents owned the estate until 1801. The Pontacs were an interesting lot, including in their number a very pious Bishop, a politician, and François-Auguste Pontac who started a London inn called l'Enseigne de Pontac where Samuel Pepys enjoyed "a sort of French wine called Ho Bryan", finding it "hath a good and most particular taste". Jonathon Swift, however, thought the wine "dear at seven shillings a flagon" - 35p a bottle, if only! Haut Brion was the first Bordeaux wine known to have been imported into the USA when Thomas Jefferson had six cases shipped home to Virginia. Eventually, in the earlier years of the 19th Century, Haut Brion found its way into the hands of the Larrieu family. Preceding reputation was enough to get Haut Brion classified as a Premier Grand Cru Classé in 1855, and a string of copy cat estates appended "Haut Brion" to their names (a source of some litigation in the 1920's) but in reality the 19th and early 20th Centuries were not great times for the wines of Haut Brion. When the bank seized the assets of Milleret Larrieu after WWI, the estate fell into the hands of the Société des Glacières under who's unenlightened guidance much of the gardens were sold off the make way for expanding city of Bordeaux. They then offered Château Haut Brion to the City of Bordeaux, who turned it down, allowing American financier Clarence Dillon to realise his dream of owning a Bordeaux château, buying the estate in 1935. His descendents own Haut Brion to this day. The gravel soils of Haut Brion are planted with 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc for reds, and a more or less 50/50 split of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon for the whites. There are around 45ha under vine. Haut Brion were one of the first estates to ferment in stainless steel. After fermentation, red wines spend up to two years in oak, previoulsy 100% new for the grand vin but, now, more like 35%. The second wine of the estate was known for many years as Bahans Haut Brion, but was renamed recently as Le Clarence de Haut Brion in honour of Clarence Dillon.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.