Mission Haut Brion

“the quintessential insider’s wine” Jancis Robinson MW, FT 24th May 2008

Well, we’re sorry Jancis but if it was a secret before it would seem that the secret is now definitely out! La Mission Haut Brion is no longer in the shadows of the first growths. Today, it enjoys the equal acclaim of famous scribes and learned tasters and certainly from our experience, no shortage of admiration from ordinary wine lovers either. It is a wine that we at armit adore and along with its stablemate Haut Brion, it is a wine that time and time again we come back to in order to experience Bordeaux at its very greatest and especially this small, unique piece of terroir that now nestles in the suburbs of the city itself.

Twenty-five years on from the purchase of La Mission by the Dillon family, now led by the charismatic Prince Robert of Luxembourg, this small 26 hectare property is a firm fixture in the top tier of Bordeaux châteaux. Under the ‘new’ regime, consistency has been achieved, continuing La Mission’s famous ability to out-perform in the lesser years but also making some of the greatest wines of the region in the outstanding years. There is no hierarchy here at the Dillon estate - La Mission and Haut Brion are treated every bit the same with the sole differences being the make up of the blends and of course the vineyards themselves, on opposite sides of the road.

Several long articles have appeared in recent days, notably Jancis Robinson’s in the FT (please click here to read it) but also Neal Martin (on eRobertParker.com) and a variety of others. The armit link with La Mission is a long one and we are delighted to offer a selection of wines below that we know will thrill any lover of great wines. For the investors out there, with the reputation of this château clearly rising ever higher, and with consistent high-scoring to boot, we would suggest that you take a serious look at adding to your portfolio.

If you would like to discuss La Mission Haut Brion, please do not hesitate to contact any of the team on 0207 908 0660.

Lovely wine, so long as you don’t have it alongside the beefier, though arguably less sophisticated, 1989. Very dark with a rust-coloured rim. Rich, ripe, very sumptuous nose with impressive freshness on the palate. Lively, long and complete, Leafily aromatic but not at all herbaceous. Transparent. More acidity than the 1989 but not too much. Drink 2000-2025

A garnet core with mahogany rim. A lovely, Pomerol-like nose with fine delineation and with vestiges of warmth from that summer tangible. Sandalwood, cedar, steaming espresso, dark chocolate and sweet red-berried fruits. The palate is medium-bodied, very well balanced, probably at its peak with notes of cooked meats and roasted chestnuts. An unexpected prickle on the finish that has touches of tar, dates and dried herbs. Good length though not as voluptuous as previous bottles. A superb wine on its plateau of maturity. Drink now-2020+

An extraordinary effort that gets better with each tasting, this dark, murky, garnet/purple-colored 1982 exhibits a fabulously complex nose of hot bricks, asphalt, black fruits, tar, roast beef, and truffles, colossal concentration, super-ripeness, an unctuous texture, and low acidity. While still exceptionally youthful, this wine is powerful, dense, large-scaled, and intense. It is evolving at a snail's pace, but should continue to improve for another 10-15 years, and last for another three decades. A candidate for perfection! Drink 1996-2016

A famous vintage for Haut-Brion. Full of milky, malty appeal but lacks the freshness of the 1982. Black berries and slightly obvious alcohol. Sweet and rich with very slightly dry tannins on the finish although full and fleshy on the palate. A chocolate mint of a wine.

This is showing beautifully well. An ebullient, mercurial, vivacious nose with intense savoury fruit, iodine and violets, then becoming gamey with time with hints of date and Satsuma. The palate has a palpable tension to it, fine tannins, harmonious and vibrant with a grainy texture, though surprisingly backward on the black tea-infused, glycerin finish. The acidity is quite noticeable and yet it is absolutely in synch with the wine itself. Great potential. Drink now-2030

I am certainly not going to argue with anyone who believes La Mission-Haut-Brion's 1989 is every bit as profound as the 1989 Haut-Brion. It is a spectacular wine, and as it ages in the bottle, it is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite La Mission-Haut-Brions, ranking alongside the 1982, 1975, 1961, 1959, and 1955. The 1989 boasts a dense, thick, purple color, followed by a sweet, roasted cassis, chocolatey-scented nose with whiffs of tobacco, tar, and minerals. The wine is extremely full-bodied, unctuously-textured, sweet, jammy, and rich. Although it is still a youthful, unformed wine, it is already delicious to drink. It should develop additional bottle bouquet by the turn of the century, after which it will drink well for 15-20 years. Anticipated maturity: 1996-2016

Hint of orange at the rim though this wine looks much more youthful than most 1990 bordeaux. Very winning, opulent, fleshy nose with a hint of raw meat decadence. Sweet start, utterly captivating, and (just) sufficient freshness to stop this being too dusty and ripe. There is a slight dustiness on the end of the palate but this is pure pleasure at the moment. Sweet all the way through. Hint of milk chocolate powder.

The first bottle is corked. The second bottle has a deep garnet core with dark brick rim. The nose is closed at first with overt black olive aromas, autumn leaves, gibier and a hint of mown grass. The intensity builds nicely in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with superb delineation and lovely tobacco-infused black fruits, bitter dark chocolate and great length. This is beginning to remind me of the ’82, developing that subtle dried herb character on the aftertaste with just a touch of dried figs. Divine.

Surprisingly, the 1990 La Mission-Haut-Brion performed nearly as well as the 1989. Three of the tasters in the group of seven who participated in this blind tasting rated it higher than the 1989. I make this point because I think the 1990 is improving in the bottle, similar to the evolution of the 1990 Haut-Brion. The 1990 La Mission performed well-above my original score of 92. The wine is ostentatious, with a sweet, spicy, cedary, fruitcake, roasted black fruit-scented nose, admirable richness, a juicy, succulent, voluptuous texture, gobs of fruit and glycerin, low acidity, and a full-bodied, layered finish. This splendidly chewy, intense La Mission-Haut-Brion will come close to matching the quality of the legendary 1989. It will continue to drink well for another two decades. Anticipated maturity: 1997-2017

Bright crimson. Very sweet and opulent on the nose – broad and round. Truly magnificent bouquet already although the palate is a bit austere. Tannins quite pronounced and dry fruit. Difficult to mark this wine – just smell it for the moment! Neat, well balanced on the finish. Just needs a little time for those tannins to soften. Drink 2011-2024

A limpid garnet core with ruby rim. The nose here is gregarious, ebullient, almost exotic in style with ripe blackberries, black cherries and a hint of black olives. This a glorious bouquet that soars from the glass but after five minutes it has clammed up a little and needs rigorous swirling to revivify. The palate is full-bodied with firm, ripe tannins. It still has the hubris and exoticism that it displayed in its youth but it is more tempered with a decade ageing. Notes of black cherries, bilberry and a touch of black olives towards the finish. Vibrant and intoxicating. Needs more time though.

Complex aromas of scorched earth, minerals, black fruits, lead pencil, and subtle wood accompany this classic, full-bodied, La Mission. It boasts superb purity, an expansive, concentrated mid-palate, and sweet tannin in the long, muscular yet refined finish. This superb La Mission-Haut-Brion, which requires 6-7 years of cellaring, gets my nod as one of the finest La Mission's produced. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030.

£7250 (IB) for a case of magnums

Still some purple and very, very dense. Commendably sweet start and a dry finish. A hint of raw youthfulness on the nose still – elderberry fruit and acidity – but a wonderfully long finish. I would expect this to take on flesh and substance over the years to come – hence the plus signs after the score. Drink 2012-2030

A limpid garnet core. The nose is absolutely gorgeous with blackberry, cassis, still quite substantial vanillary new oak and with time there is violets and black olive. The palate is full-bodied and seamless with filigree tannins, amazing focus and almost Burgundian in texture. Silky smooth, plump, ravishing and sure to astound like the La Missions of yore. The potential is enormous. Tasted May 2008. Drink 2015-2040+

A superstar of this great vintage, the 2000 La Mission Haut-Brion is as profound as the 1989, 1982, and 1975. It is more structured and tannic than the 1989, more civilized and refined, but not as thick as the 1982, and sweeter as well as purer than the 1975. The 2000 is neither flamboyant nor accessible, but what upside potential it possesses! In time, one might have to return to the prodigious duo of 1959 and 1961 to find a La Mission with this much potential. While still tight from bottling, its inky purple color is accompanied by extravagantly sweet aromas of blackberries, blueberries, toast, scorched earth, coffee, asphalt, graphite, and smoke. Super-intense and unctuously-textured, with a sumptuous mid-palate and finish, this is an explosively rich, layered effort that possesses everything I could ever want from a terroir that has given me as much hedonistic and intellectual pleasure as any other wine in the world. It is an amazing achievement for administrator Jean-Bernard Delmas, his son, Jean-Phillipe, and the entire winemaking team. The phenomenal aftertaste goes on for over a minute. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2045.

Starting to get strong La Mission notes on the nose already. The bouquet is developing quite rapidly and again no great density on the palate though good balance and a very fresh, brisk wine for relatively early drinking (because it is not too intense). Nothing out of place but a three-quarter helping of everything. Drink 2010-2020

A deep garnet core, perhaps a little more opaque than the ’03. Autumn leaves, fresh tobacco, a touch of mint but all quite compact at the moment. Coming back five minutes later there is a nice liquorices scent evolving. The palate is medium-bodied, lacking the natural ambiance of other vintages but still with good fruit intensity, though not the precision of the 2001 nor the persistency on the leafy finish. A foursquare Mission. I prefer the ‘99. Drink 2010-2018

This angularly-styled La Mission possesses hard tannin that may or may not dissipate over time. It exhibits a dark ruby color in addition to a sweet perfume of dusty, loamy soil notes interwoven with notions of white flowers, blueberries, black currants, and hints of toasty oak in the background. Medium-bodied and austere, it requires 2-4 years of bottle age, and should keep for 12-15. Drink 2007-2020

Impressively dark for a 2003 with colour right out to the rim. Nothing like the intensity of, say, the 2005 on the nose. Lightly dusty/tarry, certainly La Mission, but without real concentration on the mid palate. Mild and gentle compared with many 2003s – no excess of aggressive dry tannins on the finish. Fades rather fast but there is some freshness. Such a contrast to 2005 with its massive dose of everything!

A deep garnet core with ruby rim. This bottle has an identical bouquet to the one opened last month. Very ripe black cherries, a lot of glycerine with a touch of black plum. Definitely the more New World-style nose. A ripe, rounded palate with blackberry, plum and cassis but lacking the tension and nervosité one seeks in La Mission. A nice wine given the vintage but not a great La Mission. Drink 2010-2018

The 2003 La Mission Haut-Brion is a large-scaled wine offering a distinctive bouquet of scorched earth, black cherry liqueur, and hints of blackberries, blueberries, graphite, and smoke. Ripe, heady, full-bodied, soft, and revealing considerable complexity, low acidity, and a broad, expansive mouthfeel, it should drink well in 2-3 years and last for two decades. Its 13% plus alcohol is normal for this hot year. Drink 2008-2026

Bright, deep crimson. Super-healthy looking. Briary autumn leaf like nose. Strongly aromatic. Very dry start but with wonderful spread of ripe, leafy fruit, plus a hint of ripe red berries, over the palate. Only medium body – it’s not alcohol but concentration that distinguishes this wine. Very dry finish and then an aftertaste that spreads out like a peacock’s tail. Great potential but it would be a shame to drink this for at least 8, preferably 10, years. Drink 2018-2040

A limpid garnet core, much more opaque than I recall it. The 2005 has just a fabulous nose with pure cedar, blackberry, a touch of black plum, violets and black olives. Brilliant delineation and lift. It has lovely focus and elegance on the palate, a slight bitterness that just gives this wine so much vibrancy and vivacity. Tension – fabulous tension here that leaves the palate all a-tingle. Superb focus with blackberry, a hint of tobacco and cedar. Quite masculine on the finish compared to its barrel showing. Magnificent. Drink 2012-2040+

There are slightly more than 5,000 cases of the 2005 La Mission-Haut-Brion, a blend of 69% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and a touch of Cabernet Franc. While there is little difference between La Mission and Haut-Brion’s terroirs (their vineyards are only separated by a two-lane road), La Mission possesses more fat, texture, and intensity. An enormously endowed wine with huge tannin and structure, the 2005 offers a quintessential Graves bouquet of burning embers, charcoal, blackberries, truffles, black currants, and a meaty character. Reminiscent of the 1989, with more structure as well as a longer window of drinkability, the 2005 may be a modern day, improved version of a vintage such as 1955, which was well-endowed, very tannic, and took a long time to come around. While fabulously full-bodied and unctuous, the 2005 will not provide much charm in its youth. It needs 8-10 years of cellaring, and should age effortlessly for 30-40 years. Drink 2016-2048

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