2023 Château Haut-Batailley, Cru Classé Pauillac

The 2023 Haut-Batailley is another impressive wine from this Chateau. There's plenty of the typical dark fruit and overall breadth that is such a signature, but the tannins show greater finesse than in some prior years—a very positive evolution that continues here. Black cherry, plum, lavender, cloves, leather and licorice are all beautifully amplified. The 2023 marks another major step forward for Haut-Batailley.

The 2023 Haut Batailley was picked from 14 September and matured in 65% new oak. It has a harmonious and focused bouquet with blackberry, graphite and iris flower scents. The oak here is neatly integrated. It's actually stylistically not dissimilar to the Mouton Rothschild! The palate is medium-bodied with svelte tannins—quite rounded in the mouth, but there is backbone here. A subtle white pepper note mixes with pencil shavings on the classically styled finish, completing this refined Pauillac.

This shows structure and focus, with creamy, powdery tannins and a very pretty, silky texture. Medium to full body with a solid line of tannins running through the wine. Blackberries and currants with a hint of crushed stone. Better than 2022?

The 2023 Haut-Batailley is a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot that increasingly resembles its stablemate Lynch Bages in style. Offering up aromas of dark berries, plums, pencil shavings and creamy new oak, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with plenty of generously extracted, youthfully chewy tannin and a long, lusty finish.