2010 Haut Bailly
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Tasting notes
The 2010 Château Haut-Bailly is based on 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc that was brought up in 50% new French oak. It's a powerhouse of an Haut-Bailly that still brings incredible purity, precision, and elegance. Spicy currants, loamy earth, graphite, cigar, and savory floral notes all define the aromatics, and it's concentrated, has full-bodied richness, a deep, layered mid-palate, and ultra-fine tannins. It's a singular, sensational wine from this team that's just now at the early stages of its prime drinking window. It needs an hour in a decanter if drinking anytime soon and has another 40-50 years of overall longevity. Drink 2025-2065.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeannie Cho Lee MW
Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider
More reviews and scores
The 2010 Haut-Bailly was served at dinner following the Giscours vertical. This has a powerful and almost primal bouquet with copious scents of black cherries, crushed stones and violets—the latter perhaps more prominent than previous bottles. The palate is, again, perhaps due to impeccable provenance, backward and obviously a decade away from its peak. But what a peak that will be, promising intense black fruit notes laced with tobacco and sous-bois . Quite audacious on the finish, the 2010 is a gem.
Coiled and reserved at first, smoky cigar box as it opens, vivid and beautifully sleek blackcurrant, bilberry and blueberry fruits, taut and structured tannins even at 14 years old, with pencil lead and olive paste studding the palate from beginning to end. Plenty of estate signature in its finessed spirit, coupled with the concentration and swagger of the 2010 vintage. Harvest September 22 to October 14. Denis Dubourdieu consultant, Gabriel Vialard winemaker. 60% new oak for ageing.
Two years on from my last tasting of this vintage, and it remains concentrated and tightly wound, but the elegance and finesse of Haut-Bailly is starting to take the upper hand over raw power in this exceptional vintage. Tannins give grip and direction to the blackcurrant and bilberry fruits, then everything relaxes through the mid palate to allow creamier raspberry, crayon, cloves and liqourice root to appear. The precision and the careful step by step construction sum up all that is wonderful about Haut-Bailly, and this is a wine to celebate. Harvest September 22 to October 14.
About the producer
Quality at this château, now one of Pessac-Léognan’s leading wine estates, has risen exponentially under the reign of Véronique Sanders, with the property known for crafting wines of elegance and poise.