Country: France

Region: Bordeaux - Pessac-Leognan

Vintage: 2020

Cépage: Merlot (49%); Cabernet Sauvignon (43%); Cabernet Franc (4%)

Size: 750 ml

Rating(s): 100 (RP); 99 (JD); 99 (JS)

" The 2020 La Mission Haut-Brion is a brilliant effort that exhibits a level of balance and integration that are impressive in such a powerful young Bordeaux. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berries and plums mingled with burning embers, pencil shavings, violets and smoked black tea, it's full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a layered, elegantly muscular profile, its brooding core of fruit framed by a generous endowment of powdery tannin that tempers the ripeness of the vintage. Checking in at 14.7% alcohol, it's nonetheless more classically styled than the more flamboyant 2019 vintage or even the slowly maturing 2010 which I re-tasted alongside for context."

William Kelley (RP) - 03/23