Still incredibly youthful and sporting a lot of fruit, the deep garnet-brick colored 1998 Haut-Brion sashays out of the glass with flamboyant red and black fruits, followed by a train of cassis, blueberry pie and chocolate box notions plus accents of iron ore, dried lavender and underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is wonderfully rich and decadently seductive in its generosity of fruit and velvety texture, offering seamless freshness and finishing with epic length and compelling minerality. Oh so delicious right now, with careful cellaring it should continue to excite through 2045 and beyond. (LPB, Wine Advocate)

The 1998 Chateau Haut-Brion is showing remarkably well at this stage in its evolution. It instantly impresses with its wonderful aromatic profile of dried red berries and dark plums, laced with dried scorched earth, black truffles, tobacco, cedar box, spices and crushed gravel that all comes together gracefully. On the palate this offers a gorgeous full-body that is nicely structured with fine-grained tannins and seamless texture. Everything works together beautifully as this shows remarkable balance and and sophistication all the way through the elegant finish. (JD)

Just a spectacular wine in every sense, the 1998 is now fully mature yet still youthful, with a vivid ruby hue and little in the way of any bricking. Offering a kaleidoscope-like nose of red and black currants, scorched earth, truffles, tobacco, lead pencil, and ample crushed stone-like minerality, this beauty hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a layered, multi-dimensional texture, sweet tannins, and a thrilling finish. It needs about an hour in a decanter, but this is magical juice, and the bottle was emptied in record time.