2000 Château La Mission Haut-Brion

This is a wow wine! From start to finish, everything here is just off the chart. Starting with its still, deep, dark hue, the wine offers a dark fruited, blackberry and black currant liqueur nose, with accents of cigar box, cedar, and smoke. On the palate, the wine coats your palate with its waves of dark black fruits. There is purity, symmetry, length, and harmony that you can sense. There is also weight and depth, with a seamless finish that keeps on going.

The 2000 La Mission Haut-Brion is consistent with my most recent note, although I must admit that I felt there was a touch more brett on the nose than the previous example. Black cherries and iodine to the fore, with some undergrowth and Provençal herbs, it is very complex. The palate is medium-bodied, well balanced and still peppery with a saline finish. Excellent, but I'm going to detract a point for that brett. Tasted at the château. (NM)

The 2000 La Mission Haut-Brion is a vintage that I have not tasted for several years. At age 21, it has retained its youthful nose of vivid black cherries, wild strawberry and iodine, and shows less of the black olive tapenade element that I noticed in its youth. The palate is medium-bodied with lithe tannins that belie that backbone of this La Mission. Beautifully balanced and quite peppery, with fine salinity, it is less sauvage than many other millennial Bordeaux, leading to a succulent, sensual finish. This is only just beginning to show what it is capable of. 13.4% alcohol. Tasted at the château with Jean-Philippe Delmas.