Château Larrivet Haut-Brion 2012

Critic scores

• Wine Enthusiast93

The 2012 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 85/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A late cycle closing with rain gave an uneven vintage: the cabernets hold up, the merlots remain taut.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pessac-Léognan. 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

Dark ruby colour, dense and deep. Yet closed nose opening slowly with aromas of black fruit (cassis) with notes of vanilla, sweet spices and smoke. Rich and full attack. The balance is, at this stage, dominated by the tannins of the wine, still a little young. The finish is long and marked by burnt notes.

Blend of the 2012 vintage

Figures from the 2012 sheet

• 25 yrsVine age
• 180,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Manual & mechanical harvest at optimum maturity (from 2 to 16 October), transport of grapes in baskets, hand sorting before destemming and Pellenc optical sorting before crushing. The winery is equipped with temperature-controlled stainless steel vats permitting vinification plot by plot: traditional vinification at high temperature (28-32°C) with 3-4 pumping over per day, long maceration (25-30 days). Egg white fining before a light filtration and bottling at the Château.

Ageing

Air-conditioned cellar, traditional racking. Aged 14 to 18 months, one third in new oak barrels, one third in barrels previously used for one wine, and one third in barrels previously used for two wines.

Terroir

Léognan. Deep gravelly and sandy soil overlying a clay substratum.