2019 Chateau Haut-Batailley 5eme Cru Classe, Pauillac

This is linear and tight with blue fruit and fine tannins. Some graphite and lead pencil, too. Medium to full body with very Pauillac sensibility. Delicate, yet structured. Restrained. Needs time to open. 76% cabernet sauvignon. Try after 2026.

The 2019 Haut-Batailley, matured in 60% new oak for 14 months, has a tensile, well-defined bouquet, linear and focused (much more so than last year from barrel), featuring blackberry, briar, that same tincture of blood orange and a hint of cedar. The palate is silky-smooth on the entry and very cohesive and harmonious. Though there is a little new oak to be subsumed, that will happen over the next 2–3 years. Showing great depth and composure on the finish, this is a wonderful Pauillac that will give 30 or 40 years of drinking pleasure.

The 2019 Haut-Batailley is wonderfully resonant and deep in the glass Rose petal, lavender, spice and new leather overtones are nicely layered into a core of inky crème de cassis fruit. A wine of real substance and power, Haut-Batailley has quite a bit of potential.

A fine effort from this cru classé located between Lynch-Bages, Forts de Latour and Pichon Lalande, the 2019 Haut-Batailley offers up aromas of minty berries, loamy soil, violets, cedar and spices, followed by a medium to full-bodied, succulent palate with a pretty core of fruit, lively acids and powdery structuring tannins. This is the second vintage produced by the Cazes family since their acquisition of the château in 2017.

“Dark and spicy with rich plum and smioky grilled meat characters. The palate is extremely classic with a firm tannic spine, but brought to life with pops of vibrant juicy acidity. It leaps into life on the finish with fine white stone minerality and a precise fruit and graphite note. Evolution or revolution? Perhaps a little of both…?” June, 2020

“The third vintage under the Cazes ownership, and happy to see that they maintain a style that is distinct from Lynch Bages, one than emphasizes the elegance that Cabernet Sauvignon can give over the power and concentration of Bages. This has a touch of rusticity on the tannins, with an unfussy elegance, some delicious juicy cassis fruits and a ton of Pauillac character.” Jane Anson, May 2020