1994 Château Haut-Bailly

Community Tasting Notes (18) Avg Score: 89.3 points

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  11/23/2022 - Cailles wrote: 90 Points

  Ten Vintages Haut Bailly vs Mission HB: Preamble: All wines tasted blind in 10 vintage flights (1994-2015). To every flight one random third wine from Pessac Leognan added (2x Haut Brion, 2x Smith, 2x Pape Clement, 1x Branon, 1x Luchy Halde, 1x Carmes, 1x Chevalier). All wines opened a few hours before consumption but no decanting.
  
  Some findings:
  1) Haut Bailly outperformed Mission (5 vs 4 wins, 92.5 vs 90.5 average). 2) Haut Bailly is a rather structured wine which seems to shine bright in ripe and warm vintages, without any form of excess ripeness or extraction. 3) When done right (05/15), Mission eclipses Haut Bailly with its depth and delineation , but several vintages showed a bit too ripe but especially with the alcohol not well masked (09/10). 4) Pessac wines usually need quite some air to open up. In this setting (no decanting), most wines needed a lot of swirling to fully open up and will need more cellar time. 5) The best wines today were Haut Bailly 09 (96pts) & 10 (95pts) and Mission 05 & 15 (95pts).
  
  TN: Green bell pepper, minerality, undernath some hints of dark fruit but overall a bit muted and less expressive than the Mission. On the palate, the attack shows some sweet dark and red berries mixed with some minerality and herbs but also here from mid palate on the wine thins out quite quickly. But overall this is quite round, fine and complete with well-rounded tannins and high but well-integrated acidity but the lack of substance prevents a higher rating.
  
  Decanting: No extended decanting necessary.

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  11/20/2022 - GrapeScott wrote: 88 Points

  Pop and pour. Typical of the vintage, this is blessed with firm tannins and abundant acidity. Like a "modern day" 1975, but with a bit more fruit. Shows a lot of Graves character, with bright red cherry fruit, accented by gravel and tobacco notes. Very good and classically-styled, but try again in 5-10 years.

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  10/4/2021 - Ravi Deshpande Likes this wine: 93 Points

  A coravinned glass which led to an unexpected surprise.
  
  Straight off the hop it had a powerful floral nose which was fragrant and enticing. On the palate it was round and generous with red fruits, fairly bright.
  
  Very enjoyable and unlike any HB I’ve had to date, which in my experience tend to be reserved, tannic and astringent.
  
  Drinking this on the second day it has flowered into a lovely, graceful Bordeaux in late middle age. Fine tannins, dried rose, and flowers, secondary and a hint of tertiary aromas.

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  8/26/2018 - eboracum Likes this wine: 92 Points

  The half-dozen of Haut Bailly 94, which I bought in the late 90s, has turned out to be the most inconsistent in my memory. Two bottles were badly flawed smelling of drains and tasting of cabbage, two were average for a so-so vintage and two, including this last bottle, were very good indeed. It was aromatically well developed on the nose showing red fruit, minerals and the typical noble green edge together with an underlying roundness. The palate was medium bodied, classically shaped, lively and expansive showing good acidity and mature tannic structure, decent length and depth and adding to the attractive aromas from the nose that ineffable sweet touch frequent in mature left bank claret which is reminiscent of that in fine unsugared China or Darjeeling tea, nothing at all like the more overt sweetness of fruit in a lot of “modern” Bordeaux. Very good.

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  3/26/2017 - jnewman77 wrote:

  This bottle was mostly green, herbal, and weedy. Seemed mostly just like it was over the hill. I didn't detect cork taint, but it wasn't enjoyable...

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