2024 Ch Haut-Brion, Pessac-Leognan

DUE OCT/NOV 2027

This year, the style of Haut Brion shows through with transparency, beautiful balance and precision. Fine austerity, with excellent minerality, dark olives and red and dark berries. Structured on the mid-palate. Beautiful depth for the vintage, with really fine-grained tannins and a lengthy finish that lingers. So much vibrancy and finesse. A classic vintage.

97-98 points jamessuckling.com

Medium to full intensity, takes its time to open, this is carefully built, slow and steady in its expression, textured, restrained, cocoa bean, espresso, redcurrant, orchard, sage, bilberry. Very much a classical style of Haut-Brion that will I am sure give great pleasure after a decade in bottle - not as monumental as some, but don't count this out - there are all the bones of this exceptional wine, and the tannic architecture will widen over ageing. 1.7% press, 75% new oak, 26hl/h yield, Jean-Pierre Masclef technical director and Jean-Pierre Delmas estate director.

94 points janeanson.com

The 2024 Haut-Brion is more perfumed than La Mission Haut-Brion, unfurling in the glass with aromas of raspberries, cassis, dark berries and spices mingled with elegantly floral touches. Medium to full-bodied, layered and sappy, it has a firm texture and powdery tannins, leading to a long, spicy and lead pencil-inflected finish. Composed of 47.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37.5% Merlot and 15.3% Cabernet Franc, this vintage features one of the highest proportions of Cabernet Franc in recent years—comparable to vintages such as 1993, 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2020—and should gain harmony with the élevage. In the context of the vintage, this is a notable success, owing in large part to Haut-Brion’s intramural position in Pessac, where the estate’s terroir benefits from slightly warmer average temperatures than properties located outside the city, contributing to more complete ripening of the grapes.

93-95 points robertparker.com

I wouldn't be surprised to see the 2024 Château Haut-Brion be the wine of the vintage, and while it's not going to make you forget any of the recent truly great releases, it has more depth, suppleness, and charm than the vast majority of wines in the vintage. Ripe blackcurrants, scorched earth, graphite, crushed stone, and violets all define the aromatics, and it has nicely integrated oak, a layered, ripe, seamless mouthfeel, and building tannins. It's a beautiful, layered, elegant Haut-Brion.

95-97 points jebdunnuck.com