Description
Gabriel
| Drinking maturity | (2018 – 2040) |
|---|---|
| Valuation | 19/20 |
| Youthful garnet colour. The nose is atypical for a 95. It shows curry notes, wild rosemary, venison, dark sultanas and tar nuances. Somehow there is also a certain airy note. At least in this bottle. This continues on the palate. Here, too, there are slightly oxidative notes, malaga contours, the tannins are quite ripe and yet still massive. Difficult to understand. Was this a pubescent bottle? 15: Matured, slightly dull garnet colour, lightening rim. It enters the nose only hesitantly and shows rather floral to cosy notes, cold gravy, dark chocolate, precious wood, rising Brazil tobacco nuances, black mushrooms behind it. But all in the defensive range. A bitter ratafia note on the palate, black pepper, superficial, roughening and mealy flow. Tannins are crumbly, almost brittle. Not much fun at the moment and not quite showing the expected class. (17/20) wait? After three hours: Smoke, dark wood and traces of currants. Lots of undigested tannins on the palate. 20 hours after uncorking, the next day: still smoke, but now more subtle and mingling with liquorice, black pepper, Guinness malt and black raw chocolate, great, albeit not very powerful terroir expression. Still masculine on the palate, but the texture is now more complex and the components seem to have (finally) blended together. However, it remains a massive, baroque Haut-Brion that is quite similar to its own 2004 (and also 1988). At the moment, its motto is pretty unyielding: "Because closed - closed". Impatient people should please keep their hands off it. Otherwise you're bound to be disappointed. 15: Now I had an unquestionably good bottle - from my cellar. Still far too young. And because it was so good; another one. | |
