Château Haut-Bages Libéral 2009

The 2009 vintage in Pauillac

Vintage benchmark: 98/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A sun-drenched season from start to finish gave opulent, fleshy wines, immediately appealing yet built for the cellar.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pauillac. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The 2009 vintage has an intense purple red color. The nose is open with lots of black fruit and also red, but also floral notes. The attack is frank. The palate is powerful and has a good balance between freshness, fat and tannin. The finish is long and voluminous. The wine has character. 2009 has a long aging potential and is a great vintage.

Blend of the 2009 vintage

Figures from the 2009 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 35 yrsVine age
• 100,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Traditional in stainless and concrete vats, whose volumes are proportional to the plots. Fermentation on skins: 18 to 24 days.

Ageing

In oak barrels during 16 months. 40% of new oak.

Terroir

The vineyard covers 30 hectares, half of which are located around the property, adjoining Château Latour. The other part of the vineyard is on the Bages plateau, in the south of Pauillac. The estate's plots are located in 2 areas, one made up of deep gravels and the other of clay-limestone and chalky limestone. This type of soil gives the wine its power and its mineral character. A large part of its fine deep-gravel land overlooks the Gironde estuary. These gravels were carried down by the river from the Pyrenees during the Quaternary era. They rest on a limestone bedrock.