Bid on this 2-bottle lot of 1989 Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan (100JA, 100JG, 100JS, 100RP, 100VN, 100WS, 98DC, 97JD). Vinous: "The bottle of 1989 Haut-Brion poured in Hong Kong is unquestionably the best I have encountered in recent years. Youthful in hue, it has a breathtaking bouquet with stunning definition, a mixture of shimmering black fruit, crushed stone, black truffle and graphite. The palate is multi-faceted with unerring complexity, yet the freshness, frisson and energy make this a wonderful wine to drink. This has a life-affirming symmetry and a peacock's tail on the finish that leaves you struck with awe. (NM)" (07/2024)
1989 Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan
Current price: $4,115.00Ends in:
Included in this lot · 2 bottles
Provenance: Purchased from a reputable source upon release and stored in a custom-built temperature-controlled home cellar.
Stacked up against the La Mission 1989, tasted alongisde, the Haut-Brion has more immediate punch, still swinging at the very top of its game, and where La Mission has a softer welcome, showing pure pleasure and finesse, the Haut-Brion remains muscular and dense, even a little closed still on first opening, almost impossible to believe at 35 years. A stunning wine, with spiced depths to the damson, roasted plum and cassis fruits. Expect saffron, tobacco and smoked earth notes, with cigar box, rose petal and liqourice aromatics. The texture remains muscular - more so than last time I drank it, but that was from a home cellar and this is ex-château - and it proves one more time that it deserves to be in the pantheon of 20th century wines. Jean-Bernard Delmas estate director, Jean-Philippe Masclef winemaker.
100
John Gilman
08/2012
It had been more than a decade since I last tasted a bottle of the 1989 Haut-Brion (having absolutely zero interest in opening any bottles out of my cellar before this wine has fully reached apogee), so I was very happy to see it on display at the Hart-Davis-Hart tasting. This is a brilliant wine that has not lost an iota of its luster as it has aged, soaring from the glass in a brilliantly pure and bottomless bouquet of cassis, dark berries, cigar smoke, a very complex base of dark soil tones, Cuban cigars, fresh herbs and a refined base of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and stunningly plush on the attack, with a sappy core of pure fruit, stunning soil signature, ripe, firm tannins and simply brilliant length and grip on the still very young, seamless and boundless finish. This wine has often been compared to the 1959 Haut-Brion, but I have to believe that the 1989 will be even better when it reaches its peak of maturity! This is still a very young wine (far less evolved than the superb 1990) and I would not touch a bottle for at least another dozen years or more. It should last close to a century.
