Château Haut-Batailley 1998

Characteristics and Tasting Notes of Château Haut-Batailley 1998

Tasting

Appearance
This red wine reveals a dark colour of medium intensity, reflecting a lovely visual evolution.

Nose
The aromatic bouquet opens on notes of black and red fruits, dominated by blackcurrant and berries. It is further enriched with mineral nuances, spice and cedar, complemented by subtle hints of vanilla and fine oak. Over time, delicate aromas of candied fruit emerge.

Palate
The palate offers a medium structure, combining remarkable elegance with a slight firmness typical of its vintage. The texture is soft and fruity, supported by well-integrated tannins. The experience concludes with a lingering, graceful finish, marked by gentle oaky notes.

Serving and cellaring

To fully appreciate the Château Haut-Batailley 1998, it is recommended to serve it at a temperature between 16 and 18°C. Opening the bottle one to two hours before tasting is advised, with a very brief decanting if the profile seems closed. As this wine has largely surpassed its initial peak window, estimated to extend until around 2018, it is best enjoyed now to make the most of its tertiary aromas.

The elegance of a great Pauillac with Saint-Julien accents

The estate

Born in 1942 from the division of the historic Batailley estate, Château Haut-Batailley is an emblematic fifth classified growth of the Bordeaux region. Located in the south of the appellation, this estate is distinguished by the presence of the famous Tour L'Aspic, a true local landmark. Long managed by the Borie family, the estate was acquired in 2017 by the Cazes family, headed by Jean-Charles Cazes. The new owners continue to uphold the excellence of the wine while modernising infrastructure and considerably expanding the planted area.

The vineyard

At the time of this vintage, the terroir extended over approximately 22 hectares south of the town of Pauillac, on the edge of Saint-Julien. The vines, around forty years old at the time, are planted at high density on deep gravel mounds of Garonne origin, resting on a subsoil of sand and clay. This unique geographical position gives the grapes optimal ripening conditions. The vines are tended in a traditional manner, with double guyot pruning and entirely manual harvesting, often carried out by loyal teams from Andalusia.

The vintage

The year was marked by contrasting weather conditions in the Médoc, resulting in grape ripening that was not always perfectly even. These particular conditions required an extremely rigorous selection process during the harvest, so as to retain only fruit that had reached a satisfactory level of ripeness, giving the wine a slight firmness characteristic of this vintage.

Winemaking and ageing

After careful sorting of the grapes, the winemaking of the Château Haut-Batailley 1998 followed a traditional process typical of the era, before the major modernisation of the cellars. The wine was then carefully aged in French oak barrels for a period of 16 to 20 months. The use of a proportion of new oak, ranging from 30 to 40%, helped refine the structure while preserving the brightness of the fruit.

Grape varieties

This wine is made from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (70%), Merlot (25%) and Cabernet Franc (5%).