Mission Haut Brion - Pessac-Léognan 2019

Alexandre Ma

98

byAlexandre Mathe5/11/2022

The nose is delicate and precise, featuring a graceful aromatic image of pinecone, moss and scents of juicy berries. The body is rich and ample with a sense of airing mouth feeling; even though the alcohol is a bit generous, the entire palate is still naturally balanced. The tannins are pretty smooth, as bouncy as the skin of a baby. The finish is peaceful and tranquil, which is long enough to cross the mountains and the oceans. ???????????,????????????????????,???????????????????????????????????,????????????????????,??????????????????,??????????????

Jamessuckling.com

98

byJames Sucklingthe5/5/2022

Blackcurrants and crushed stones with violets and roses. Earthy and black truffle notes, too. Medium to full body with firm, silky tannins that are layered and attractive, in a muscular and toned fashion. Iodine, ink, earth and bark with wet-vine undertones to the fruit at the end. Reserved and impressive. Best after 2025.

Jeb DUNNUCK

100

byJeb Dunnuckthe4/12/2022

The 2019 Château La Mission Haut-Brion is Merlot-dominated, checking in as 53% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc. It's a more opulent wine compared to Haut-Brion, and the Merlot is front and center here, with ripe, sexy black cherry and redcurrant fruits as well as licorice, scorched earth, cedar pencil, and graphite aromas and flavors. Rich, exuberant, and straight up sexy on the palate, it's full-bodied, has a deep, layered mid-palate, building tannins, and a heavenly finish. Just a prodigious, powerful, off-the-charts expression of this terroir, it actually reminds me slightly of the 2005 (or 1998?) with its mix of sexiness and opulence. This is one of the few 2019s that will make your eyes roll back in your head. It will need 10-15 years of cellaring, but it’s a sensational wine on every level and will have 40+ years of prime drinking.

Wine Advocate

99

byWilliam Kelleythe4/7/2022

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion unwinds in the glass with aromas of inky berry fruit, wild plums and cherries mingled with notions of warm spices, burning embers and creamy new oak. Full-bodied, deep and layered, it's rich and concentrated, with a deep core of fruit, bright acids and fine, powdery tannins. Powerful and tightly wound, this is less sumptuous and demonstrative out of the gates than its sibling Haut-Brion, but I suspect it possesses even greater potential.

Vinous

97

byAntonio Gallonithe2/24/2022

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion is fabulous. There's no doubt about that. When it might actually be ready to drink is another matter! Soaring aromatics are so alluring. On the palate, though, the 2019 is incredibly reticent. Readers should be in no rush. Today, La Mission is a wine of huge potential. Dark red cherry, rose petal, incense, iron and gravel hint at what is to come. 97+

Vinous

97

byNeal Martinthe2/17/2022

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion was picked from September 11 until October 2, and matured in 78% new oak. This has a fragrant nose, very well defined and neatly disguising the 14.6° alcohol. It comes across just a little closed compared to other vintages, perhaps due to tasting in December. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, fresh and vibrant. This has a gorgeous texture and real tension toward the finish. Intense rather than powerful, it fans out wonderfully, gaining depth with aeration. An audacious La Mission Haut-Brion, but perhaps not quite within the very top rank of this estate.

Wine Advocate

98-100

byLisa Perrotti-Brownthe7/15/2020

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion is composed of 53% Merlot, 39.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7.5% Cabernet Franc, harvested from the 11th of September to the 2nd of October. The estimated label alcohol degree is 14.5%. Very deep purple-black in color, it slowly unfurls in the glass to reveal a beguiling perfume of violets, Black Forest cake, wild blueberries and kirsch with nuances of star anise, cast-iron pan, pencil lead and crushed rocks plus a waft of wild sage. The full-bodied palate is densely laden with layers of black fruit, earth and floral-laced flavors, framed by exquisitely ripe, finely grained tannins and compelling freshness, finishing with great length and loads of mineral sparks. A wine of impeccable breeding, both decadently flamboyant and provocatively graceful, this is already a prodigious wine of indisputable beauty.

WeinWisser

20

byTjark Witzgallthe7/7/2020

Bettane & Desseauve

97-98

by Bettane & Desseauvethe7/3/2020

18,5-19

Vinous

95-97

byAntonio Gallonithe6/18/2020

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion is a powerful, brooding wine done in a grand scale. Scorched earth, tar, licorice, gravel and dried flowers infuse the 2019 with striking depth and dimension. A wine of somber, brooding beauty, the 2019 is going to need the better part of a decade to start unwinding. Readers will find a La Mission of virile power and breadth.

Vinous

98-100

byNeal Martinthe6/16/2020

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion was picked from 11 September until 2 October at 52hl/ha. It is deep purple in colour. It has a very intense, what you might call quite "serious" bouquet with blackberry, wild hedgerow, crushed iris petals and a light estuarine influence. It shows exquisite delineation and focus. The palate is stunning with intense black fruit laced with crushed stone, sea salt, black pepper and cedar, almost Pauillac in style. This La Mission is so pixelated with stupendous intensity. After four hours it closes up and appears cowed by the presence of the expressive Haut-Brion. Yet after 8 hours it is unquestionably showing greater structure and depth than the First Growth and, as such, despite its mercurial nature, I wager that ultimately this will become one of the wines of the vintage. Breathtaking.

Jamessuckling.com

99-100

byJames Sucklingthe6/11/2020

A tight and structured La Mission that takes you deep into the glass with super intensity and power. The tannins are omnipresent and envelop the palate. It’s full-bodied yet agile and complete. Iodine, sweet-tobacco and blackberry character. It seems never to finish. Another WOW wine that reminds me of some of the great classics of this estate, such as the 1955.

The World of Fine Wines

94-96

byMichael Schusterthe5/13/2020

Fine and lightly, subtly minerally on the nose; full-bodied, nicely concentrated, fresh in acidity, firmly tannic; very sweet, pure, and transparent in texture, warm, complex, refined
and long to taste, all within a slightly alcoholhardened firm tannin, and with a lovely  fruitfragrant persistence. Fine wine, but the marked gravel-aroma element, so much part of its core character for so long, is gone. Will it be there with age? Who knows. They say that terroir always “comes through” ... We can hope. Fine wine, no question, which will give plenty of pleasure … but it is necessarily a very changed expression of the terroir, because the climate element of the terroir has changed so much.