Continuing to show brilliantly, the 2012 La Mission Haut-Brion is a quintessential Graves, boasting a deep purple color as well as heavenly aromatics of blackcurrants, tobacco, scorched earth, graphite, and licorice. It’s a big, full-bodied beauty yet has a weightless, elegant style, building tannins, and a great finish. It needs a solid hour in a decanter if drinking today and promises to evolve beautifully for another 3-4 decades.

A wine that vibrates with life, generous, juicy, full of momentrum and pulsing minerality, ripe red and black fruits, with orange peel, saffron, clove, sage, complex and studded with succulent appeal. Interesting to note the high alcohols, showing even as far back as 2012 its location in the thermal corridor of urban Bordeaux was having an impact, but they are well balanced, adding flesh to the texture rather than heat. 75% new oak.

Full bodied, concentrated and showing more depth in bottle than in barrel, the wine is packed with layers of ripe, smoky fruit, tannins and earth in every sniff, sip and swallow. The wine really lingers on the palate with intensity and expansiveness. The wine was made from a blend of 62% Merlot and 38% Cabernet Sauvignon. There is no touch of heat in the 14.9% alcohol finish. This is much better from bottle than barrel. As it ages, this could get better still! Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/search-wine-tasting-notes/?szSearch=2012+Mission+Haut+Brion+

Tasted blind at the Southwold 2012 tasting, the 2012 La Mission Haut-Brion showed brilliantly. It has an intense, floral bouquet with rose petals and strawberry preserve, hints of sous-bois and tobacco gently unfolding in the glass, gaining more earthiness as it aerates in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, broad and spicy with hints of bell pepper suggesting high quality Cabernet Franc. It fans out gloriously with a sustained tertiary finish that completes what is a wondrous La Mission Haut-Brion from Jean-Philippe Delmas and his team. Tasted January 2012. - Neal Martin

This is closed up, dry and tough on the outside. But you can feel the rich weight and the dark tannins along with the powerful structure. That makes this wine both replete with a firm character and also full of generous, concentrated black fruits. It’s a powerful wine, ready for good aging; drink from 2022.

Gorgeous aromas of stones, currants and blueberries. Very aromatic. Mesmerizing. Full body, silky tannins and a long finish. Dense and rich. Layered. Earth and bark character. Lots of structure for the vintage. Better in 2019.

The 2012 La Mission Haut-Brion has a very classy bouquet with cedar and graphite infused black fruit. It is not dissimilar to the 2012 Latour in many ways (in fact, nosing between my two glasses they are almost indistinguishable!) The palate is quite different though - quite precocious and fleshy on the entry, silky smooth with a caressing, irresistible finish, there is a sense of completeness here. Wonderful. Tasted twice at Bordeaux Index's Ten Year-On tasting and blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting. -- Neal Martin

The rigid tar and bramble frame should eventually meld with the core of plum, blackberry and macerated black currant fruit, featuring ample energy and a graphite note through the finish. Just a little bit of patience required here. Best from 2018 through 2025. 5,176 cases made. — JM