2003 Haut Brion Bordeaux Blend

Bordeaux Blend - 750ML
Reg: $650.00
$525.00
In Stock: 0 btls
Ships Immediately
Pre-Arrival: 1 btls
ETA: Mar. 2025
Most orders placed M-F by 3pm (PT) ship same day.
Orders placed on a weekend or holiday will ship the next business day.
Shipping Info

Free storage available
Wine Storage

REVIEWS

WE 97 JS 96 WS 96 WA 95 JR 93 JL 93 W&S 93
WE 97

Wine Enthusiast, June 2004

(95-97 points) Restrained power combine with great style and elegance in this beautiful wine. The tannins are certainly solid and serious, but then they are also sweet, dusty ripe, sustaining dense dark plum flavors and...
JS 96

jamessuckling.com, April 2011

An intense opulent nose with notes of ripe fruits and meat. An exotic and decadent wine it boasts a full body with big velvety tannins and loads of complexity. Layers and layers of flavors. Let this sit until 2015. Find...
WS 96

Wine Spectator, March 2006

Complex aromas of black licorice tobacco and cedar with red fruits. Full-bodied with superseductive silky tannins loads of fruit and a finish that lasts for minutes. A beauty in all the sense of the word. Best after 2012...
WA 95

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, August 2014

Even better, and clearly the best wine made in the Haut-Brion stable in 2003 (the last vintage of the great Jean-Bernard Delmas as administrator), the 2003 Haut-Brion is a blend of 58% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon and...
JR 93

Jancis Robinson's Purple Pages, November 2013

Dark ruby. Opulent and sweet with some real depth of flavour. The slightly burnt note was more indicative of Haut-Brion's 'warm bricks' character than sunburnt grapes. Long, rich and quite satisfying. Lively and very...
JL 93

TheWineCellarInsider.com, December 2013

Like many wines from Pessac Leognan in 2003, this has developed at a rapid pace. You can see it in the color, note it in the perfume and feel it on the palate. There is complexity, but the fruit is slowly starting to fade...
W&S 93

Wine & Spirits, October 2006

This has the deep stoniness of Haut-Brion but it's hard to recognize through all the sweet fruit. Initially that sweet ripeness puts it in line with Napa Valley cabernets tasting sleek firm and intense. The tannins become...

WINE DETAILS

Color & Type Red
Varietal Bordeaux Blend
Country France
Region Bordeaux
Sub-region Pessac Leognan
Vintage 2003
Size 750ML
Percent alcohol 13%
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.