Updated: Sep 9, 2024
The Château Haut-Batailley 2013, a wine ready for immediate enjoyment, presents a deep ruby colour with a tight rim. It is a dense, fruit-intense example, featuring fleshy blackberry and boysenberry flavours with robust Pauillac tannins. The wine evolves towards a precise style, revealing lively blood orange and pomegranate tones, crunchy cassis, thyme, spice, coffee bean scents, and a hint of toast. It is crisp, bright, and spicy, finishing with a light red berry note. This elegant St Julien-style wine is well-balanced, with 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot grapes, and is matured in 60% new oak. The wine has a medium finish and a modest alcohol by volume (ABV) of 13%. It is not a full-bodied Pauillac.
This Château Haut-Batailley 2013 has been rated DD91 and RP90, with the 2010 vintage receiving an RP91, making the 2013 scores quite respectable.
The Château Haut-Batailley 2013 is a blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, harvested from October 2nd to October 10th at a rate of 31 hectoliters per hectare (hl/ha). It has a light and slightly leafy bouquet with hints of bay leaf and undergrowth, and while it lacks vigour at this stage, it gains cohesion towards the finish. The palate is medium-bodied with a saline character at the entry, reminiscent of Lynch Bages, and it maintains a classic style with a touch of austerity lingering on the aftertaste. This assessment is based on a tasting conducted in April 2014—deep ruby with a tight rim. A fruit-intense, dense example from 2013, this bottle gives a good sense of fleshy blackberry and boysenberry with robust Pauillac tannins, facilitating a development towards a precise style. The second nose points to lively blood orange and pomegranate tones, crunchy cassis, thyme, spice and coffee bean scents, and toast; the wine is crisp, bright and spicy, finishing with a light red berry note. This Pauillac with St Julien personality and elegance is ready for immediate consumption. It remains an attractive quintessential Pauillac that is well-balanced using two grapes(76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, matured in 60% new oak) and gripping with a medium finish. ABV is a mere 13%. If you want a full-bodied Pauillac, this bottle is for someone else.
We accord it a DD91. It's an RP90. Considering that its 2010 vintage is an RP91, 2013 scores are pretty decent and excellent value.
RP90 is from Parker, who writes that the Château Haut-Batailley 2013 blends 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, picked from 2 to October 10th at 31hl/ha. It has a light and slightly leafy bouquet with touches of bay leaf and undergrowth. It is missing a little vigour at this stage. The palate is medium-bodied, with a saline character at the entry (like Lynch Bages). It gains cohesion towards the finish, remaining resolutely 'classic' in style with a nice touch of austerity lingering on the aftertaste. RP et al. tasted April 2014.
Deep ruby; medium rim. Fresh red fruit with some complexities. Elegantly woody- soft and clean with round and smooth nose. Traditional ageing in oak barrels, this wine has a classic, rich suppleness and develops a hint of ripe, darker fruit. Soft, elegantly chalky; almost can't feel the alcohol. Recently promoted to Cru Bourgeois Supérieur status in the 2003 revision of the 1932 classification, Château Coufran has positioned itself among the leading crus bourgeois of the Haut-Médoc. It was still going on fine.
It seems to be an Ex-château sold directly from the winery after being bottled and stored in its cellar. They have never left the production site before the purchase, and often, they are perfectly aged and ready to drink when offered ex-château, meaning their storage should be perfect.
Frequently described as Médoc Pomerol, Château Coufran's special character is due to its geographical location and the choice of grape variety, which might initially seem unusual. Consisting almost entirely of Merlot(the other 10%), the vines cover hilltops that look down over the Gironde estuary. Merlot's tendency to ripen early works wonderfully on this dry gravel/sandy terroir, which is particularly well-oriented.
Why did wines from La Lagune as a 3rd Growth seem unpopular amongst wine drinkers here in Hong Kong, or is it just my wrong perception?
Yes, I am writing to defend them. I like this wine for its purity, richness, and grip. I venture this explanation. It is not the round-fruity type, even though the complexities exist. It stated attenuated because of the apparent lack of bright fruit, but it always has length. It is not the fruit profile that Hong Kong drinkers are mad about.: always smoky, vanillin, weedy tobacco. Of course, it is too structured for some and closed for their neighbours.
Accorded 93GG, 2007 seems more closed and thinner than its neighbours in this phase, suffering from the lived acidity commonly found in the 2007s. However fine-grained they are, the tannins are lots. And it still needs some time. Despite the excellent brilliance, the colour also looks 'dangerous' for the garnet-red colour. I don't have a problem with all these: the clean, fruity nose where morello cherry and black fruit intermix- the tannins are ample and soft with forward fruit. Almost ready to drink. Interesting and seductive, wild berries and chocolate, but shows great class and density. It would be great with steak dishes, not with Cantonese food. After all, wine is my food.
Awarded 95VT, this 2010 shared the character of 2007. Despite its ripe vintage, fruit is still 'elegant'-notes of flowers, red fruits, forest leaf, spice, and tobacco in the perfume. It is Soft, fresh, elegant, and refined, with various red and black fruits on the palate and vibrant, long, sweet, and refined. Just smaller than one would expect from 2010. But what could offer this sort of silliness, a small richness with that level of intensity? It reveals notes of quite a ripe blackberry, crushed strawberry and small notes of crushed cassis associated with small touches of crushed redcurrant, lily, and camphor, as well as discreet hints of chocolate/cocoa, a subtle hint of tobacco, almond and an imperceptible hint of truffle. Just gourmandize, albeit not for Eastern food, with a good definition, suavity, a certain purity, fine straightness, and suavity.
Awarded 94Falstraff, 2014 is boring to some: spicy Petit Verdot tones, ambiguous wood tones, herby, almost salty, dense on the palate, homogeneous tannin pressure, slightly alcohol-borne in the transition to the finish, juicy dissolution with a mineral base and a fine trace of acid, too delicate. The palate is still intense fruity(as 2014 should be), gourmand, racy, well structured, and offers expressed blackberry, cassis and raspberry associated with a touch of redcurrant. Who are with me? Sadly, not even from my drinking friends! Let buyers beware!
