2002 Haut Brion Bordeaux Blend

Bordeaux Blend - 750ML
Reg: $575.00
$435.00
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REVIEWS

WE 96 DC 93 WA 93 WS 93 JR 91 NM 91
WE 96

Wine Enthusiast, June 2005

Surprisingly lively and fresh, this is still a seriously impressive wine. The high proportion of Semillon is now coming to dominate the Sauvignon, to give a wine that is finely shaped, full of creamy flavors of wood and...
DC 93

Decanter, July 2023

If it is a bit unyielding now, there is a a solid, dense core that suggests that this will have a few more years at least at this level. Merlot dominates the blend at 51% of the total, and the wine is aged in 71% new...
WA 93

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, March 2022

As it closes in on age 20, the 2002 Haut-Brion is beginning to drink very well, opening in the glass with aromas of blackcurrants, plums, cigar wrapper, loamy soil, burning embers and violets. Fleshing out considerably...
WS 93

Wine Spectator, March 2005

Complex aromas of blackberries tobacco and cedar follow through to a full-bodied palate with ripe velvety tannins and a long caressing finish. Very beautiful. Best after 2009. -JS
JR 91

Jancis Robinson's Purple Pages, November 2012

Scented and a little herbaceous. The most middle of the road, difference-splitting wine. Finishes quite dry. But there is admirable fruit on the way there. Neat. Dry. Very brisk. Next night it was more introvert, dry and...
NM 91

Neal Martin's Wine Journal, January 2010

Tasted blind at Farr’s 2002 Bordeaux tasting. Very good intensity on the nose with blackberry, black olive, gravel and hot bricks/cedar. Great definition. The full-bodied palate is very dense and sturdy with gripping...

WINE DETAILS

Color & Type Red
Varietal Bordeaux Blend
Country France
Region Bordeaux
Sub-region Pessac Leognan
Vintage 2002
Size 750ML
Percent alcohol 13.5%
Closure Cork

The oldest of Bordeaux’s five first growths and the only property outside the Medoc to be included in the 1855 Classification, Chateau Haut-Brion was founded by Jean de Pontac in 1533. The name derives from the Celtic word briga, meaning “hill” or “high place”, and refers to the gravelly elevated terrain situated between the Le Peuge and Le Serpent streams.

History shows that as early as 1660, Haut-Brion wines were already appreciated at royal tables as evidenced by the purchase of 169 bottles by King Charles II of England, noted in the royal cellar book. Among the wine’s admirers are the famous London diarist Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Jefferson, who had distinguished the wine’s quality long before the 1855 Classification.

Arnaud III de Pontac was responsible for building the estate’s international reputation and for creating a new style of wine that is the basis for all currently classified growths - an era which historians have described as a revolution in winemaking.

Chateau Haut-Brion was acquired by the American financier Clarence Dillon on May 13, 1935 and has been managed by the same family since. Much of the estate’s success is also credited to the Delmas family, who have worked the estate for three generations. Nearly five centuries after the creation of its vineyard and 350 years after the first published mention under its current name, Chateau Haut-Brion remains one of the finest wines in the world today.

Haut-Brion’s grand vin is the embodiment of five centuries of tradition and plays a pivotal role in the worldwide history of wine. It is the oldest of the Bordeaux classed growths, the inventor of a new style of wine fashioned in the seventeenth century, and considered the world’s first luxury brand.

Typically more Merlot dominant than other Left Bank wines, the terroir of Haut-Brion is expressed through its empyreumatic bouquet (Havana cigars, chocolate, roasting, cedar wood, and so on). The attack is restrained, with precise yet exceedingly soft tannins. But the power of this wine is revealed in the surprising long mid-palate and even longer finish.