Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion 2023

Once again, this wine leaves you speechless—brilliant; immensely profound and floral: violet, iris, coriander, with citrus notes. A goosebump-inducing bouquet found only at Les Carmes. On the palate it’s dense and concentrated yet featherlight, gliding over the tongue; the tannins are perfect, silky; a magnificent arc of tension and an almost endless finish. Once again, a Les Carmes that leaves you speechless. It will be a joy at every stage of its life.

95-97. Barrel Sample. With 80% of the two Cabernets, including 50% of Cabernet Franc that thrives on the chalk and clay soil, this wine is richly structured and with great fruits even at this stage. It is a dynamic wine, full of rich black fruits and a velvet texture.

Extremely floral nose; peony, iris, rose, expressive and aromatic with black fruits too, liquorice, dark fruit, cedar, some black chocolate and coffee bitterness on the nose too. Smooth and supple, nicely weighted in the mouth, forward, grippy and bright with a soft chew - really quite polished and pristine. Seamlessly integrated with the acidity balancing the tannins and the ripe fruit with some mineral wet stone undercurrents and slight bitter liquorice and grapefruit skin on the finish. It’s a little serious, but certainly polished with a soft chew of strawberry and raspberry and stoney-edged tannins giving excellent terroir signature. Ripe, fresh, clean, fragrant, sleek and streamlined. It has a lovely style and lots of finesse from winemaker Guillaume Pouthier. Harvest 11-25 September, 60% whole bunch fermentation taking the alcohol down from 14.3% at picking to 13.5%. 3.62pH.

With a deep, garnet hue, the wine displays a perfume packed with blackberries, blueberries, cigar box, sea salt, flowers, blueberries, tar, herbs, espresso and spices. On the palate, the wine is rich, full-bodied, supple, and deep. There is intensity, purity, length, and vibrancy. The wine is rich, and concentrated, and while it can be approached early, it has all the right stuff to age for decades. While the finish is mouthcoating, its also elegant, leaving you with layers of crushed stones, a wealth of ripe, sweet, dark fruits, with a touch of salty chocolate and refreshing mint in the finish. The wine was made using 60% whole bunch clusters, blending 50% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot. Drink from 2028-2050.

Elderflower and peony aromatics, stunning inky plum colour that is very much a signature of Carmes, where it looks so enticing and ripe visually, and then on the palate you feel this contrasting vibrant lift and drinkability. Back to the signature squid ink flavour that is the key marker of ripe Cabernet in the vintage, and here the grippy slate texture slows everything down, slowly humming through the palate. Has a sappy drinkability, with crushed rose petals and salted cracker salinity. 60% whole cluster, harvest September 11 to 25. 3.6 pH. Distinctive, intense, one for Carmes lovers to celebrate.

Score: 96-98. A deep, delicate nose that invites you to explore a profusion of flowers and wild plants at the bottom of its magical well. Wonderfully bitter citrus notes join in. Confident on the palate, with a strong, assertive identity, it unfurls black fruits—toasty, smoky, fresh (a vinous Grace Jones). A tight core, gripping with enchanting sap, and a silky, saline, mouthwatering finish with superb bitterness on the aftertaste.

The aromatic positioning is paradoxical: so deeply distinctive, yet built from basic elements that sketch Carmes Haut-Brion in the background. The details lead to the obviousness of the place, highlighting the effects of whole clusters and the freshness that comes with them, while the bright fruit notes invite you to taste a wine already shining with aromatic harmony! Smooth yet vibrant on the attack, the wine sets off on a precise, linear course. It has muscle, character, elegance. It has no hesitation in showing an elongated profile, because it knows it has the power needed to rein in its ambitions. Echoing the bouquet, the palate flirts with ripeness suggesting a hint of fruit preserve, but the acidic structure sets things straight with authority—decisively, yet without raising its voice. The suppleness of the tannins supports the balance, a restrained power, a sense of quiet strength, with sparks nonetheless that set the taste buds alight! There is never any respite: the flow is continuous, energising, mouthwatering, and carried by fine bitterness that only heightens freshness and length. A wine of imposing straightness that nonetheless manages to take winding paths, so as not to be monochrome. This Carmes Haut-Brion is a reminder of how relevant it is to shine on one’s own, through one’s own potential. As I like to repeat, it is of course about pleasing, but also about carrying you along, inspiring you, and putting the “how” into perspective. The “why” is so much more precious! A fully accomplished Carmes Haut-Brion, brilliantly embracing its fundamental values and aiming to draw smiles, tears, shivers—simply the outcome of astonishing oenological sincerity with one essential purpose: to bring people together. It’s just wine, and that is precisely why it is simply magnificent! When the monumental work done behind the scenes leads to the obvious choice of simply loving a wine, then everything was probably done right.

Dark, intense, beautiful colour. A very aromatic nose, refined, pure, fruity, subtle and complex. It becomes deeper and more appetising with a swirl of the glass. A background of stewed blackberries. Broad and fleshy from the first taste, rich on the mid-palate and extremely silky, the wine develops juicy, tender and with no weak point in its body, leading into a great, almost airy finish. It’s wonderful and impossible to spit out.

Slightly higher in Cabernet Franc than usual, the 2023 Les Carmes Haut-Brion opens with a nuanced bouquet of cassis, cassis leaf, licorice, dark berries, wisteria and blueberry. Medium- to full-bodied, fleshy yet strikingly linear, it’s defined by a tensile structure and a crystalline precision that gives the wine remarkable clarity. The tannins are exquisitely refined—silky yet laser-focused—imparting a sense of purity and balanced. Despite 90% new oak, the élevage is seamlessly absorbed, shaping the wine’s structure without encroaching on its intrinsic balance and precision. Kudos!