- Colour Red
- Producer Château La Mission Haut-Brion
- Region Pessac-Léognan
- Grape Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot / Cabernet Franc
- Drinking 2028 - 2050
- Case size 6x75cl
- Available Now
2018 - Ch La Mission Haut Brion Grand Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan - 6x75cl
- Colour Red
- Producer Château La Mission Haut-Brion
- Region Pessac-Léognan
- Grape Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot / Cabernet Franc
- Drinking 2028 - 2050
- Case size 6x75cl
- Available Now
Select pricing type
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Goedhuis, April 2019, Score: 97-98
A truly lovely La Mission with a very similar overall make up to Haut-Brion with 53% Merlot and 47% Cabernets. On this occasion, despite its lovely quality on the day, it had to play second fiddle to its first growth neighbour. Similar smoky dark fruits and black olive aromas. This is full of ripeness and charm, very scented with damsons and Caribbean spice. There are so many rewards and flavours in this wine from mocha and coffee to dark winter hedgerow fruits. Delicious volume, svelte tannins and superb length.
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Neal Martin, March 2021, Score: 97
The 2018 La Mission Haut-Brion was double decanted and assessed after two hours, and the over the following 24 hours compared directly with – what else? – Haut-Brion. They were initially poured blind. This has retained a very perfumed and hedonistic bouquet of black fruit and pressed violets, and less of the graphite that I picked up out of barrel; touches of ash/fireside hearth develop with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins, and quite structured, more so than the Haut-Brion. There is a brightness here that I really like. Vivid, animated and brimming with energy and still incredibly persistent on the finish. A fabulous La Mission Haut-Brion that deserves several years in bottle, and though I would not rank it alongside, say, the 1955 or 1989, it is a magnificent Pessac-Léognan. Drink 2024-2060
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Neal Martin, November 2019, Score: 96-98
The 2018 La Mission Haut-Brion was picked from 10 September to 2 October at 44hL/ha. It has a perfumed and wonderfully delineated bouquet with blackberry, briary, pressed violets and graphite aromas, perhaps even more precise than the Haut-Brion at this stage. The palate is medium-bodied with silky smooth tannins. This is almost clinical in terms of precision, symmetrical, with a powerful, almost Burgundian finish that reveals amazing persistence. This is a fabulous La Mission Haut-Brion and a contender for one of the wines of the vintage.
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Antonio Galloni, April 2019, Score: 90-93
The 2018 La Mission Haut-Brion is bright and punchy, with lovely radiant fruit and a good deal of immediacy. Sweet red and purplish berry fruit, mint, tobacco, blood orange and wild flowers all grace this expressive, open-knit La Mission. It will be interesting to see what develops with élevage. Today, La Mission is decidedly expressive, and yet its typical layers of nuance are not yet especially in evidence. In 2018, La Mission is 53.5% Merlot, 42.9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3.6% Cabernet Franc.
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Wine Advocate, April 2019, Score: 98-100
The 2018 La Mission Haut-Brion is composed of 53.5% Merlot, 42.9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3.6% Cabernet Franc, harvested September 10 to October 2. Deep purple-black in color, it slowly unfurls to reveal a beguiling nose of earth and soft-spoken fruit, opening with wild blueberries, wet slate, pencil lead and fresh black cherries giving way to a serious core of blackcurrant cordial, baked plums and wild sage, and then exposing delicate wafts of rose hip tea and candied violets. Full-bodied, the palate is very tightly wound and super intense with amazing restraint and energy focused around very firm, exquisitely fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing incredibly long and fantastically multilayered. Extraordinary wine.
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James Suckling, April 2019, Score: 97-98
A tight and linear red with fantastic oyster-shell, iodine and crushed-stone character, complementing the currants and blackberries. Extremely long and fresh.
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Decanter, April 2019, Score: 97
An extremely fine Mission, just beginning to say its piece. It's dense, gorgeously velvety in texture and bursting with fruit and energy. On the palate you get liquorice and dark chocolate notes, showing clear generosity while easily walking the line of balance. The longer it sits in the glass, the more the minerality takes hold on the mid-palate, doling out its tiny sparks of electricity and holding your attention. The subtle smoke, freshly cut herbs and tight tannins steal up on you, planting their flag in the finish. Harvested 10 September to 2 October, giving a 44hl/ha yield. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend. IPT 75.8. The 3.76pH is the highest since 1989. Drinking Window 2023 - 2032
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Matthew Jukes, April 2019, Score: 18++
This is a blunt and tough La Mission with muscle and power and it is not showing much fruit, preferring to lead with skin tannin and oak notes. The dryness and intensity of the skin derived flavours are rather arresting and this dents the flow of the wine across the palate. There are slight coffee bean notes and some tobacco details here, but overall this is a square, monolithic wine which needs a lot of time and also some serious softening of the tannins to fall into balance.
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Julia Harding, April 2019, Score: 17.5+
Deepest crimson with very dark core. Intense, pure aromatic cassis and a hint of cassis leaf, though fully ripe. Smells very Cabernet. And the tannins are upright and structured but extremely lithe and supple. No thickness here. Agile. Just a little chewy on the finish. So seemingly approachable and full of energy. Drink 2026-2040
Producer
Château La Mission Haut-Brion
Owned by the Dillon family since 1983, La Mission Haut Brion is without doubt one of the mostexceptional wines of Bordeaux. Across the road from Haut Brion, it regularly competes with its moreillustrious older sibling and has even outperformed Haut Brion in certain vintages, such as 2006 when Wine Spectator suggests that it "could be the wine of the vintage".
Region
Pessac-Léognan
Stretching from the rather unglamorous southern suburbs of Bordeaux, for 50 km along the left bank of the river Garonne, lies Graves. Named for its gravelly soil, a relic of Ice Age glaciers, this is the birthplace of claret, despatched from the Middle Ages onwards from the nearby quayside to England in vast quantities. It can feel as though Bordeaux is just about red wines, but some sensational white wines are produced in this area from a blend of sauvignon blanc, Semillon and, occasionally, muscadelle grapes, often fermented and aged in barrel. In particular, Domaine de Chevalier is renowned for its superbly complex whites, which continue to develop in bottle over decades. A premium appellation, Pessac-Leognan, was created in 1987 for the most prestigious terroirs within Graves. These are soils with exceptional drainage, made up of gravel terraces built up in layers over many millennia, and consequently thrive in mediocre vintages but are less likely to perform well in hotter years. These wines were appraised and graded in their own classification system in 1953 and updated in 1959, but, like the 1855 classification system, this should be regarded with caution and the wines must absolutely be assessed on their own current merits.
