Sipping Fine Wine

9.8

Blend of 96% Tinto Fino and 4% Merlot, new and used oak aging, deep Ruby red with elegant bouquet of berry fruits, pepper spice with earthy tones. On the palate flavors of plum and blackberry, with tobacco, oak, pepper spice, lively acidity. Fine soft tannins, long finish ending with fruit, oak, spice and an earthy character. Nice! — 6 days ago

Andrew Cullimore

9.1

Medium ruby , quite wide garnet , terracotta rim . Quite spiced tobacco , red focused sous bois , warm spice , coffee and cacao , a little foursquare , rustic perhaps . On the palate better , quite juicy and rounded , spiced red plum , dark cherry , dry spice . This becomes more saline with time in the glass, balanced acidity and some slightly gritty tannins. This is probably in the middle of its drinking window , and will remain here over the next 5-10 years perhaps. Within the context of Haut Brion , this perhaps is just a little below par . — 2 days ago

Tobin Spratte

9.5

Senses immediately overloaded, in a good way, with a bouquet of lavender tea, smoked cherrywood, tobacco, cedar, vanilla, and as someone here astutely observed, Alpine herbs. Buried underneath that is wild mushroom, wild raspberries, and cherries. Lasting nice finish, though a bit heavy on the alcohol compared to its southern nebbiolo cousins, but given the sforzato Amarone-like production process, this makes senses. One of the finest reds I've had in some time, certainly on par or better than the other nebbiolo I've tasted.

Better yet, I scored this for a steal of a price at a local Total Wine who either thought this was too old or didn't know what they had. — 3 months ago

Bart van Wijngaarden

9.3

Orange tinged pale golden colour. Excellent pure nose of apricot, iodine and spices. Unctuous on the palate yet supported by a great backbone of acidity. Great depth of flavour and very satisfying length. A great wine by any standard. — 13 days ago

Andrew Cullimore

9.4

Medium Ruby with quite wide garnet rim. More truffle , tobacco , violet , cassis and earthy notes. Takes a bit of time to get going and certainly shows a bit more age than the 2009. On the palate, more austere with dryer tannin than the 2009 , but very well balanced and classic in style . Cassis, blackcurrant , tobacco graphite notes . Some dry spices too . Quite fresh acidity , and slightly gritty tannin. Long , saline, graphite tinged finish. This is showing some development , but will improve further over the next 5 possibly 10 years and hold well a further 5-10 — 2 days ago

Peter van den Besselaar

9.3

Vintage 2016 | drank this a year ago and my opinion is the same: great balance because the wine has só much acidity that it gives counterplay to the sweet. Without food it is a wine with a lot of tension. With a home made brownie it became more rounded. Still potential for many many years. A treat. — 3 months ago

Jack Cubberly

9.1

Great dessert wine — 3 months ago

Josh Morgenthau

9.6

Silken sugar and scorching acid. Apricot and magnolia and liquid grapefruit nectar. Psychotic aroma, wafts from feet away. — a month ago

Andrew Cullimore

9.4

Light straw , very young looking . Constant very fine perlage . Quite closed at first then crushed rocks , lemon peel , ginger , white flowers , brioche . On the palate good richness and intensity , lemon , orange rind , buttered bread , touch of roast nuts . Very fine mineral tinged , intense finish . This needs time and will improve over the next 10 years or so and last well a further 5-10 . A good follow up to the 2014 , this shows more backward and will take even longer to reach its peak. Perhaps a little less detailed and precise than the very mineral 2014 but that might just be a question of needing more time in bottle. — a month ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.2

1989 vintage. Last tasted 3.28.24, 5.5.23, 4.4.23 and 12.9.22. Solid fill and cork. Recommended decanting but was denied. Mmkay. Eventually got clearance to decant after the bottle had been open for 1.25 hrs. Tasted after being open 5 mins, 45 mins and 2 hrs. Light-medium body throughout. Wine was funky and super tight initially. Had to talk a few of the “participants” down from their “this wine ain’t nothing” perch by telling them it needed at least an hour in the glass (since it hadn’t been decanted at that point). Wine threw expected sed on the decant. Started to loosen up at the 45 mins open stage and fairly exploded at the 2 hrs open (45 mins decanted) point. Dude that didn’t want to decant it gave me a wistful, regretful look at that point (since it blew the other 4 reds at the table away and was getting better) and it took waay too much willpower on my end not to say “Congrats on minimizing a fantastic wine experience, bro.” It wasn’t the best 1989 P-L specimen tasted semi-recently but feel this coulda delved into the 9.4 range without the unnecessary power trip from someone that didn’t even bring this wine to the shindig. Hopefully, this individual learned their lesson. 7.6.24. — 3 months ago