Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2022

Deep, cool, white grapefruit, lemon zest, nutty notes, dried herbs; a crisp yet full-bodied palate, building plenty of tension, showing breadth and power, with fine acidity adding vibrancy; excellent length; a wine with charm, generous curves and potential.

Very vivid for such a hot, dry year with grapefruit, sliced pears and hints of matchstick. Full-bodied but not heavy with pretty phenolics and a long and flavorful finish. The extract in this keeps the wine in motion, giving energy. 72% semillon and 28% sauvignon blanc. Give this three or four years of bottle age. Drink or hold.

Anjou pears, green apples, white flowers, honeysuckle, lemon curd, vanilla, and orange peel create the complex nose. The palate picks up where the nose leaves off with its yellow citrus, pineapple, spice, and tangerine accents. The finish balances its sweet, juicy citrus with freshness. Made from a blend of 72% Semillon and 28% Sauvignon Blanc, picking took place September 3, finishing September 10. 14.3% ABV, 3.3 pH. Drink from 2025-2040. 97-97 Pts.

The 2022 Château La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc is 72% Semillon and 28% Sauvignon Blanc. It delivers sensational intensity and depth with notes of grilled pineapple, ripe citrus, and flowers, as well as a riveting sense of crushed-stone minerality. All of this carries into a full-bodied white with integrated acidity, a pure, powerful mouthfeel, and a clean, crisp finish that keeps you salivating. Don’t believe the dogma that great whites can’t come from hot vintages. This is a concentrated, powerful, incredibly impressive dry white that will evolve gracefully over the next two decades. The alcohol reached 14.5% and its pH is 3.32.

72% Sémillon, 28% Sauvignon Blanc. Delicate, intriguing bouquet of nectarine, lemon balm, cooled green tea, and freshly ground white pepper. Wonderfully silky mid-palate with a supportive, almost lemony acidity, bright minerality, and layered body. Focused finish with citrus, mandarin, and verbena.

White rose petals on the nose, softly fragrant, takes a beat before opening and widens to show pumice stone, preserved lemons, quince, with a wash of fresh mint. Excellent quality, clear complexity in such a young wine, has grip and tension, and plenty of finesse. There are some 40-year-plus Sémillon vines at La Mission, with deep roots, that may have helped retain this freshness, along with the limestone soils. Harvest 16 to 23 August, 2nd earliest harvest after 2003.

A playful nose of gunflint, with notes of lychee and white grapefruit. On the palate, a assertive attack and a silky texture, lifted by an exotic touch mid-palate. The smoky finish, with delectable minerality, extends the pleasure.

Pale colour with yellow highlights. A very fine, intense nose—pure, fruity, subtle, deep and vanilla-scented. Broad on the attack, juicy on the mid-palate, with great poise on the palate and plenty of flavour; the wine melts across the palate, long, sappy, complex and profound. Superb, and above all impossible to spit out.

94-96 Barrel sample. The wine has a ripe, creamy character, which is unusual for blend featuring over 70% Sémillon. It is fresh, while at the same time full of richness. The wood aging will be judicious, making a fine, rich while also fresh wine.

Lovely clean aromatics on the nose - fragrant elderflower, yellow roses, green apple, lemon sherbet, vanilla and cream. Bright and open, this has a subtle charm with both lifted lime and peach notes as well as a soft but cool honeyed aspect. There's also accents of wet stones giving a saline grip to the finish which is lovely. A nice balance between freshness and strength with zingy acidity but also a wide and broad mouthfeel. Still a little tense and direct, not yet super calm, but lovely aromatic aspects and will be great to drink in a couple of years. 3.32pH. 41% new oak. Impressive for such a high proportion of Semillon in the blend given the conditions of 2022.