Chateau Haut-Batailley

Pauillac 5th Growth 2012

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  Vintage 2012
  92 points

Long owned by Xavier Borie, this Pauillac estate sits next to Batailley and is just south of Borie’s other famous château, Grand-Puy-Lacoste. The 2012, dramatically better from bottle than barrel, is bigger boned, richer and more flamboyant than this wine normally tends to be. The color is a healthy purple, and the wine offers plenty of cassis and licorice as well as a touch of incense. The oak from barrel-aging 18 months is largely obscured. Medium to full-bodied and impressively endowed, it comes off like a hypothetic blend of a St.-Julien and Pauillac, but this is a classic 2012 that is full, rich and impressive, with beautifully sweet tannins. Drink it over the next 20 years.

• 

  Vintage 2012
  93 points

Medium deep colour. Fresh aniseed, malt, vanilla, malt notes. Fresh and generous with plentiful redcurrant fruits, fine grained almost sinewy tannins. Builds up very muscular at the finish but fruit concentration and balance make this a very impressive wine. (Barrel)