Fine Wine > Still > France > $200+

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"A tight but incredibly pronounced nose of smoke, earth minerals, lead pencil, black currants, cherries, and spice... full-bodied... rich multi-tiered, stunningly pure, symmetrical style with wonderful sweetness... it tastes like liquid nobility."

Cellar/Tasting Notes
RP: "Perfumed and pretty. Classy and elegant on the nose, with currant, light vanilla and a hint of lilac. Full-bodied, with ultrafine tannins and a long, long finish. All in finesse. Very impressive; could be the wine of the vintage."

Cellar/Tasting Notes
JS: "Complex aromas of tobacco, cedar, berry and currants. Full-bodied, with a solid core of fruit and ripe tannins. Not as good as a barrel sample tasted earlier, but still outstanding for the vintage. Best after 2009."

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"A spicy, ripe, elegant and admirably pure nose offers up notes of anise, sandalwood and clove that add breadth to the floral, earth and stone-suffused aromas. There is the same superb breadth to the rich, intense and tension-filled full-bodied flavors that possess excellent power and drive on the..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"Like many of its peers, the 1998 has filled out spectacularly. Now in the bottle, this opaque black/purple-colored offering has increased in stature, richness, and size. A blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc (57% of the production was utilized), it is an extremely..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"This is completely different and trades elegance for notably more aromatic complexity as here the nose is impressively broad-ranging with its panoply of ripe orchard fruit, rose, lavender and white flower nuances coupled with notes of citrus peel, stone and spices. There is a discreet touch of..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"The backward 1996 Haut-Brion was bottled in July, 1998. Even administrator Jean Delmas was surprised by how closed it was when I tasted it in January. Only 60% of the crop was utilized in the final blend, which was 50% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 11% Cabernet Franc. Out of barrel, this..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"Background notes of wood are discernible but stop short of being invasive as they still allow the restrained, cool and pure dark berry fruit and black cherry aromas to shine. Interestingly this is less overtly spicy as the Amoureuses at present though there is a genuinely gorgeous inner mouth..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"An exuberantly spicy, fresh and ripe nose speaks of red berry fruit liqueur, plum, anise and clove plus discreet mineral nuances. The powerful and sleekly muscular flavors are quite firm yet there is a certain generosity present that finesses any sense of toughness...."

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"Performing better from bottle than at any time in cask (which of course is the objective of great winemaking, isn’t it?), this wine reveals a dense ruby/purple color in a style somewhat reminiscent of the 1988 but with more power, concentration, and volume. It has a beautifully elegant nose of..