Château Haut-Bailly Pessac-Léognan Grand Cru Classé 2016 i trækasse

Jeb Dunnuck

This sensational effort boasts a deep purple color as well as a massive bouquet of crème de cassis, tobacco leaf, crushed flowers, and graphite, with just hints of smoky earth emerging with time in the glass. Deep, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated, it’s nevertheless all about finesse and elegant, and this beauty just glides across the palate.

The Wine Cellar Insider - Jeff Leve

Just stunning, the wine is deep, concentrated, full-bodied, richly textured and fresh. The fruit has a purity to it that stands out. The wine is tannic, but the tannins are refined. However, this will not be fun to drink early in its life, it will demand 15 years or so to come around.

James Suckling

Wonderful aromas of tobacco, sweet fruit and licorice follow through to a full body with ultra-fine tannins that caress every inch of your palate. Love the length and subtlety to this young wine. Gorgeous.

Robert Parker

Full-bodied, rich and seductive, it has layer upon layer of red, black and blue fruits intermingled with earth and mineral hints leading to a very long, perfumed finish.

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

Just stunning, the wine is deep, concentrated, full-bodied, richly textured and fresh. The fruit has a purity to it that stands out. The wine is tannic, but the tannins are refined. However, this will not be fun to drink early in its life, it will demand 15 years or so to come around.

Christer Byklum

Ruby. Intense nose of cassis, blueberries, spices, liquorice, layered and deep. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, anise, spices, liquorice, cassis, dark fruits, nuanced and layered, beautiful depth, long indeed!

Vinous

A big, vertical wine, the 2016 Haut-Bailly explodes onto the palate with tremendous depth and intensity. Readers should be in no rush to drink the 2016, as it won't be close to ready to drink for at least a decade, and I say that as an eternal optimist. Black cherry, smoke, tobacco, cedar, gravel and incense add to the wine's decidedly somber personality.

Decanter

Hugely successful, a wine where the architecture becomes clearer with every minute that it remains in your mouth. Each strand of those softly-spun tannins really stands out, giving effortless support to the cassis, charcoal, tobacco and slate. Over it all, the most appealing, gently curling woodsmoke comes right on up through the palate. The whole effect is of a soft, caressing texture that manages to also be hugely intense. A wonderfully complex layering of flavours, absolutely no doubt that this is going to age beautifully.
this is going to age beautifully ... The blend is 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc aged in 50% new oak.

Wine Enthusiast

From an always-impressive estate, this vintage is superb, offering big tannins plus but also generous black fruits and powerful ripeness. Dense and with a good structure for aging, the wine will develop slowly..

Falstaff

Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, subtle brightening of the edges, reductive cassis scent, semi-dark chocolate, dark berries. Blueberry. And finally, damp lime. Good freshness. On the palate full of pressure with fine substances, seems a little softer than in other years, but the tannin takes hold on the palate, but remains fine-grained with mineral character, mild acidity, very long structural length. Hardly any astringency despite the powerful tannin content. Despite its fullness, it has a lot of nuances and differentiation, remains delicate in the fruit, vital in the acid thread despite the ripeness of the acid, everything without hardness, but with firmness.

Jeannie Cho Lee

Tastingbook.com