WTN: Haut Baillys

A nice group met at Balvanera last night to introduce a New Yorker (soon to be an ex-NYer) to Ch. Haut-Bailly.

We started with baccalau croquetas, corn empanadas, salad

NV Dehu La Rue des Noyers Rose
Disgorged 2022, I’m told it’s Meunier,2019 base,saignee. Really nice, snappy red fruit (raspberry), floral, good length, lovely mousse. B+/A-

2014 Fichet “Tesson” Meursault
I’m a Fichet fan, I’m a 2014 fan, and the combo here makes me a fan! Rich but delineated,pear and hazelnut, someone says “Pastry cream”and another says “that’s what I was looking for”. About as good as you can get in village level white Burg. A-

There was a sherry that the sherry fans loved, to me it tasted like sherry.

(my first pour of ‘98 Haut Bailly was weird, then I realized I hadn't rinsed glass from sherry. Once glass cleaned it was fine)

1998 Ch. Haut-Bailly
Dark fruit and a little oak on nose, on palate clean black currant and a green tobacco edge. Fairly tannic, this could use a little time. B+/B for now

Skirt steak, morcilla, french fries, carrots

1996 Ch. Haut-Bailly
Young, structured, this needs time yet is pretty appealing now. Fine tannins, lively acids, long dark fruit, herby. B+ with potential, wish I owned some

1995 Ch. Haut-Bailly
Nice enough, but there’s an out of place pruney element that seems more about slight heat damage than an overripe wine. NR

1983 Ch. Haut-Bailly
Soft and lovely, red plum and cocoa, a light smoke note, lovely and elegant. B+/A-

More skirt, potatoes, some Iberico ham.
(also somewhere in here another table sent over a taste of an Argentine wine- a blend of syrah malbec and merlot - didn’t float my boat at all, so didn’t bother finding out name)

1979 Ch. Haut-Bailly
This is so 1979 (in a good way). Bright red and black cherry fruit, citrus zest, driven by racy acids. Long mineral finish. Contender for WOTN (though most were!) A-

1978 Ch. Haut-Bailly
Riper and smokier, soft black plum fruit, cigar tobacco. Ready to go. I liked this a lot but might not hold. B+

1966 Ch. Haut-Bailly
Black cherry, blood orange, campfire, cocoa. Long and complex. Really beautiful wine (double decanted at 3 PM, continues to evolve in glass). A-

As we paid bill I took a quick taste (and maybe not a fair assessment) of the 2005 Pinon Cuvee Botrytis Vouvray (500 ml? I think). Honey and apricot, lots of sweetness, not much finish, but not really a fair shot as it was just opened and I didn’t give any time. A B but could be much better

Nice group, nice night, nice chateau!


Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

That was such a fun dinner. Great group of people, and the wines were generally amazing across the board. Some thoughts:

Fully agree on the Fichet, which was among my favorite wines of the night. So much depth, layers of rich , intensely chalky/saline mineral flavours, a light herbal element, and sweeter vanilla butter and pastry cream-like scents all coming together into a seamless whole. This was my first experience with the producer and clearly I need to put some Fichet in my cellar.

My impressions were very similar to yours on all the Haut Baillys. Generally beautiful wines that are in my sweet spot stylistically - more medium weight and graceful expressions of Graves, with that smokiness and savoury gravelly earth I love so much in Graves.

98 - liked, found it a touch light even by H-B's standards, quite a bit of tannin and acid here, but lovely.
96 - of the 90s wines, this was my favorite, though I was an idiot and didn't decant before coming down to the city. Probably would have benefited from that, it was much better later in the evening when revisiting. Love the finesse and brightness here. If I see the 98 or 96 at an auction, I may have to go after either.
95 - agree on the stewed aspect on the nose, thought it had some heat damage. The palate was OK, some fruit and better than the nose, but not representative.

Of the older bottles - had a very hard time picking a favorite between the 66, 79, and 83. I joked the 66 was my favorite Bordeaux of the night, the 79 my favorite Burgundy of the night.

83 had perhaps the best aromatics for my taste, more red fruited with a sweeter, almost floral element along with the dark fruit and tobacco/earth.
79 - LOVED the palate presence. So elegant and graceful with the acids of the vintage really standing out.
78 was very good, but for me suffered in contrast to the 79 that was so elegant.
66 was special, so elegant and seamless with everything coming together perfectly, kept building and showing more layers with air, with that old wine sweetness on the palate that always hooks me.

The Pinon was bizarre for my taste, a lot of botrytis spice dominating but the fruit seemed hollow and flat. Not what I expected, and far from the experiences I've had from this wine previously. I have one more bottle at home, will check and see if this was an anomaly and perhaps just an off bottle.