Tasting Notes
Vinous 89
Good deep red-ruby. Herbal blackberry, licorice and gunflint on the nose. Slightly medicinal flavors of dark fruits and licorice show moderate fruit intensity but complex mineral, graphite and cedar elements. The moderately sweet, ripe finish is kept fresh by firm, ripe tannins and juicy acidity. Seems sweeter and sappier than when I tasted it at the Primeurs a couple years ago, but it's still one of the more austere Clarence de Haut-Brions in some time.
Robert Parker 93
The second wine of Haut-Brion is now called Le Clarence de Haut-Brion, and the 2010 is among the finest I have tasted there. It is a broad, powerful and more muscular wine than its cross-street rival, La Chapelle de la Mission, but all the same, it is wonderfully fresh and precise, with notes of blueberry and boysenberry as well as hints of smoke and wet stones. Endowed with gorgeous fruit, texture, purity and elegance, this relatively dense second wine demonstrates how draconian the selection process has become for the top estates in Bordeaux in recent years. The blend of this wine is 52% Merlot, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest mostly Cabernet Franc with just a touch of Petit Verdot. I would expect it to last at least 20 years, which is remarkable.
Anticipated maturity: 2013-2033
