TN: A disappointing 1994 Haut Brion

WINE TALK
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After reading Paul Jaouen’s enthusiastic notes on this, I decided to open one for dinner last night with steak, onion & pepper kebabs, corn and couscous. The dinner was great. The wine…not so much.

It had about 90 minutes in a decanter and while the nose was lovely (tobacco leaf, olives, smoke), the palate really didn’t budge and was disappointingly short with a clipped finish. We left it alone in the glasses after pouring, deciding instead to have a perfectly pleasant 2004 Duckhorn Merlot (nice dark fruits, with hints of chocolate and menthol, broad and mouthfilling to taste) to begin. But there was still little or no movement on the HB when we came back to it an hour later. [swearing.gif]

I’ve a few more of these…hopefully the next one will be better.

Cheers
Peter

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Too bad. I was sad that the one I opened was my only bottle.

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Peter, good for you - you’ve now learned a valuable lesson about putting much stock in Paul’s TNs [wink.gif]

Seriously, though, that’s too bad – the HB has been one of my favorite wines from this inconsistent vintage, so it’s too bad that you had an underperformer this weekend.

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Hi Peter,

I opened one of my bottles of this last year and had a similar experience- a bit chunky and four-square on the palate, with reasonable depth to the nose, but not a whole lot of complexity emerging. I had consistently liked this wine out of the blocks and thought it was one of the most interesting wines of the vintage, and hope that the wine is just too young still and will develop more complexity with further bottle age. If your bottle was like mine, it is still certainly a relatively young wine, so there is hope that more Haut Brion complexity will emerge with additional time in the cellar. But this was a time in Bordeaux when a lot of “innovations” were being played with in the cellars of the Bordelais, and the odd lack of complexity on the bottle that I opened made me wonder whether or not this vintage of Haut Brion might have been “worked over” a bit to produce a bit more concentrated '94. When I wrote my piece on the estate, I did not ask about the '94, as I had not really thought about the potential reasons for its lack of complexity. But chewing on it over the last year, I wonder if this was not an experimental vintage at Haut Brion. In any case, I have five more bottles to track over the next couple of decades and try to determine if these recent bottles were just too young at this time, or if the wine is never going to capitalize on its apparent early promise.

Best,

John

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John - good to see you posting here.

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I opened 2 bottles from a case recently for a small dinner party and the first had the edgy clipped quality described in this thread and the second was really good.

The first was diminished both in nose and palate and although nobody could detect an obvious flaw it was a markedly inferior and disappointing bottle with a slightly sour edge in comparison with the second which was good medium-bodied Haut Brion.

These were bottles 8 and 9 and, of the previous 7, two had been relative disappointments in the past 18 months along the lines of the first of the 2 most recent bottles. I intend to keep a couple of bottles for several more years but frankly doubt that the ‘problems’ have been anything that age will cure since most of the bottles have been quite ready and enjoyable to drink without extended decants with the others just somewhat off.

Someone might suggest low level TCA but even the most sensitive amongst us was unusually unwilling to make that call. C’est la vie but my limited experience is in line with both the [different] reports in this thread.

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John - really interesting insights. Thanks for contributing. This bottle was from a full case, and while the others may have been opened on the young side, there were one or two that seemed to be a little more evolved. I thought after an 18 month wait that this might be similar to Paul’s experiences.

Four more to go. I won’t have the patience to hold them for 20 years, and I suspect, Nigel, that you’re right. Its a bit of a crap-shoot from here on in.

All the best

Peter

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Dragging this thread back from the depths for an update. Didn’t think it had been a year since my original post but I guess that’s what happens as age creeps up

Decided to try another on Thursday. On opening, things actually looked positive. Nose of cedar, smoky olives and a little earth. A decently long finish on the palate. So far so good.

After maybe 45 minutes in a decanter, however, the nose had shifted to an iodine-y, swimming-pool edge and the taste had fallen away. Bugger.

I am regrettably concluding that my bottles hit some bad storage at some point before I bought them in 2005. Maybe if I pop and pour the rest over the next several years rather than decanting them (and drink them quickly) they might be more pleasant.

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BTW, did I ever mention that Paul O’Neill is one of my favorite Yankees! I’m sure you get that a lot (although I don’t know what your first name is, so maybe not).

At any rate, while I haven’t tried one recently, I did buy my case on release, so unless wines were cooked in transit, I have no concerns regarding provenance. I had forgotten all about this thread until you resurrected it, but when I get the chance I will dig out a bottle and see what gives.