2012 Château Haut-Bailly

Evident cocoa bean, dusted almonds, generous blackberry fruits, creamy griotte cherry, gourmet edged, with fresh acidities that ensure balance. Enjoyable, good quality with creamy fruit that builds through the palate. This is ready to drink but will continue to deliver over the next decade or more. Harvest 27 September to 15 October, Denis Dubourdieu consultant, Gabriel Vialard winemaker.

In the same ballpark quality-wise as the 2006, 2008, and 2014, the 2012 Château Haut-Bailly has beautiful ripeness in its sweet red and black fruits as well as notes of smoky tobacco, tapenade, and damp earth. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has a broad, rounded mouthfeel and shows the inherent elegance that's the hallmark of this terroir. It's still youthful but drinking brilliantly. Enjoy bottles any time over the coming 15+ years.

The 2012 Haut-Bailly has a well-defined bouquet, blackberry and tobacco at first, red fruit emerging with time. The oak is neatly folded in here. The palate is ripe and fleshy on the entry, powerful and quite dense, although it lacks the complexity of the de Fieuzal towards the finish and just misses a bit of vigour, unlike the bottle that formed part of my vertical at the property. Tasted twice at Bordeaux Index's Ten Year-On tasting and blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting.