Les Carmes-Haut-Brion : 5 results priced between £25.00 and £400.00

Les Carmes Haut-Brion is situated in very close proximity to the famed Bordeaux first growth of Haut-Brion. Its origins date back to 1854 when Lord Jean de Pontac of Haut-Brion, who was 101 years old, felt the time was ripe to prepare his way to Heaven. So he gave a watermill (surrounded by pasture and vines) to the Carmes de Notre Dame. The Carmes monks ran the estate for 200 years, during which it became known as Les Carmes Haut-Brion.

A light, elegant-styled wine with cool mint and flowery notes intermixed with spice box, red currants and sweet and sour cherries, the dark ruby-hued, medium-bodied 2011 Les Carmes Haut-Brion reveals a pleasant, but evolved style. It will require consumption in its first decade of life.

As always, this was a tasting from barrel of the components that are likely to go into the final wine. This year, because some of the lots were so small, they had already made some micro-blends prior to this tasting. I find it quite difficult to do this tasting and wonder how useful it is in terms of getting an idea of the final wine, but it does perhaps give an indication of the overall quality of the lots. There were two main harvest periods: 15-19 October (the rain and then humidity returned on...