2018 Château Haut-Bages Libéral, Grand Cru Classé, Pauillac, Red Bordeaux, France.
The beautifully drinking dark garnet medium bodied 2018 Château Haut-Bages Libébal, a blend of close to 70% Cabernet and 30% Merlot, has a classic Pauillac style structure with an underlying power and depth of fruit showing off smoky dark currant, blackberry, plum and cherry fruits, as well as cedary wood, stony loam, tobacco leaf, delicate florals, minty anise and tapenade. This wine, a very nice surprise, tasted blind, has lots of velvety texture with supple tannins and a terrific finish, making it a gem and a value effort, especially considering Château Haut-Bages Libébal’s fabulous Pauillac location and terroir. At this stage the wine has developed well and should be rewarding for another 10 years easy, which makes it a very compelling buy right now. This luxurious Cabernet Sauvignon based Bordeaux is particularly delicious with a full meal or an array of meaty dishes, including a thick steak, although it would also go well with roast poultry and or wild mushrooms. I hadn’t had a bottle of Château Haut-Bages Libébal in a very long time, in fact if I’m not mistaken, my last experience with this wine was a bottle of their 1975 vintage, which also was a joyous surprise at the time, but, after having this 2018, I don’t think I’ll let so much time go by until my next bottle!
The Château Haut-Bages-Libéral is a classic Fifth Growth Bordeaux property that was established by the Libéral family that settled on the estate in the 1700s and was part of the original World Fair 1855 Classification that is now run by the Lurton family, led by Claire Villars-Lurton, manager of Château Ferrière and Château La Gurge, and wife of Gonzague Lurton. The Lurton ownership has solidified the quality of wines and provided consistent results in this Château, which is set on a high plateau, which gives it its name in the high rent district of Pauillac, maybe the greatest single terroir in the Medoc, or Left Bank. I learned that the Château Haut-Bages Libéral estate, between Pauillac and Saint-Julien, has three main vineyards with the largest being next door to Château Latour, with a smaller plot down the road close to Château Pichon-Lalande, with these plots close to the Gironde River, while the third further inland, right by Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste. The soils here are mainly gravelly over an underpinning of limestone allowing good drainage. The estate has a total area of 30 hectares (74 acres), with an average vine age of 40 years with 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, as of 2009, and typically the final blend of the Grand Vin is close to the same, or 68% Cabernet, 32% Merlot. The Grand Vin, with all the grapes being hand-harvested, is traditionally fermented in temperature controlled steel tanks with cool extended maceration, after which the wine sees a barrel aging for over 16 months in 40% new oak. This Haut-Bages Libéral impressed in the glass and I would certainly recommend it to Bordeaux novices and enthusiasts alike.
($55 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive