2009 Haut Marbuzet
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Tasting notes
Tasted at a negociant. This has a typical Haut-Marbuzet bouquet: soft and rounded, very plush with unashamed exotic fruit interlacing the red-berries, hints of honey and marmalade. The palate is full-bodied with grippy tannins, very toasty at the moment with the new oak dominating. But there is good balance on the finish, a firm backbone here and the persistency is linear but long. Very fine
Critic scores
Average Score
Neal Martin
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Sweet and unfocused. Plummy and picked a little late – or too much Merlot? Perfectly nice drink but not much to do with St- Estèphe apart from the minerally finish.
For the last ten years, many Bordeaux chateaux have backed off the oak treatment, but not Haut-Marbuzet. Vivid, even aggressive vanillin and toast wage an inner struggle with some black currants and black cherries in this flamboyant, overtly woody style of wine. It is medium-bodied, has good to very good concentration, but is certainly not one of the great classics from this well-known property in St.-Estephe. Drink it over the next 10-15 years. Wine Advocate.February, 2012