2022 Château Haut Batailley En Primeur
Released this morning for sale en primeur, 2022 Chateau Haut-Batailley continues the renaissance of this estate under the Cazes family's ownership, with several critics noting the wine's 'brooding', powerful style which 'nods towards' its sibling Lynch-Bages.
Lynch has always been a crowd-pleasing Pauillac, reliably delivering depth of fruit and power, almost irrespective of vintages. With a new winery, Lynch is clearly aiming to move into the next league, both in quality and price. Haut Batailley offers a great alternative, with the same impressive structure and potential for development.
The only caveat is that the 2022 is likely to require around ten years for the powerful tannins to soften. Neal Martin likens it to Mouton Rothschild and predicts it will be drinking into the 2070s! Hence this will be an excellent choice if you are looking to lay something down in your cellar for long-term ageing, at a reasonable price.
Offered en primeur, on allocation. Landing spring 2025.
Magnums available with £15 ex-VAT bottling surcharge, please enquire for other formats.
To order, e-mail us at sales@richardkihl.ltd.uk
Producer Profile
Château Haut-Batailley, Cru Classé Pauillac
Château Haut-Batailley is a Cinquièmes Cru Classé in Pauillac, owned since 2017 by the Cazes family, who also own Lynch-Bages. Originally part of the Batailley estate, it became a separate property in the 1940s, under the ownership of the Borie family.
The 41-hectare vineyard is planted to 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 35 Cabernet Franc, on deep Garonne gravel. 19 hectares of this have recently been added by the Cazes family, land with planting rights within AOC Pauillac that had not been planted since Phylloxera. As you would expect in the era of micro-viticulture, the new vines were planted after an extensive study of the terroir. These vineyards will come on stream over the next few years, as new plantings mature.
The estate is split in two parts, with part of the vineyard close to Latour and another parcel on the Bages plateau, close to Lynch-Bages. The style here has historically tended toward elegance, but recent vintages have shown more concentration and power.
| RED | 2022 | 1 case | Château Haut Batailley | 75cl | £520 per case of 12 | Château Haut Batailley 2022 / 1 case / 75cl £520 per case of 12 |
IB | ||||
Tasting Notes"Sculpted plum and raspbery puree fruits, fresh lift through the palte, this is a lovely wine that has intense liquorice and bilberry fruit, a little austere in its tannic structure on the finish, more so than in recent vintages at this sculpted fruit-forward Pauillac, but there is great spice here, and has the phenolic richness and density of the year. 3.73ph, 65% new oak. 93 points." Jane Anson------"A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, the 2022 Haut-Batailley offers up aromas of sweet berries and plums mingled with licorice and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, firm and structured, it's a serious, rather muscular and extracted wine that begins to nod toward its stablemate Lynch Bages in style. 91-93+ points" William Kelley, RobertParker.com------"The 2022 Haut-Batailley is a potent, brooding wine. Black cherry, gravel, cured meat, spice and leather infuse the 2022 with tons of mineral and savory intensity, backed by a formidable spine of tannin that gives the wine shape and vertical thrust. I imagine the 2022 will need the better part of a decade to come into its own. Tasted two times. 93-95 points" Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com------"The 2022 Haut-Batailley is matured in 65% new oak for a planned 16 months. It has a very intense and almost untamed bouquet that explodes from the glass, and only after five or ten minutes does it begin to show some restraint. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy, fresh and multi-layered tannins, not dissimilar to the Mouton-Rothschild that I tasted a couple of hours earlier. With a satin-textured finish, this will need a decade in the cellar and some taming during élevage. Like a young tiger at the moment. It has 14.2% alcohol. 93-95 points" Neal Martin, Vinous.com------"Classy and very focused with blackberry and blackcurrant character. The tannins nicely melt into the wine with finesse and weightlessness. Elegant. 70% cabernet sauvignon and 30% merlot. 94-95 points" jamessuckling.com------"The 2022 Château Haut-Batailley is much more structured and darker than the Verso, offering classic Pauillac cassis, currant, tobacco leaf, melted chocolate, and espresso nuances, with an almost iron-like hint that emerges with time in the glass. Full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it's nevertheless balanced and textured. It's a brilliant wine, if not the finest vintage I've tasted from this château. 94-96+ points" Jebdunnuck.com |
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