2023, Château Les Carmes Haut Brion, PESSAC-LÉOGNAN, Grand Vin de Graves

Last Year EP $310.00-

This small (7.82 hectare) property now has a stylish new winery designed by Philippe Starck. Winemaker Guillaume Pouthier previously worked at Chapoutier in the Rhône, and regularly uses up to half whole bunch fermentation.
2023 is 50% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot with all varieties co-fermented.

This is a fantastic wine and very, very exciting, with purity and brightness to the floral, spicy and blackberry notes. It’s full and deep with agility and weightless. You feel the greatness in this. The winemaker says this is more concentrated and structured than the 2022. From organically grown grapes.
98-99 James Suckling.

Guillaume Pouthier and his team have once again crafted one of Bordeaux's most unique and characterful wines. Revealing aromas of mulberries and raspberries mingled with notions of vine smoke, orange zest, rose petals and spices, the 2023 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is medium to full-bodied, fleshy and concentrated, with a powerful, vibrant and complete mid-palate, concluding with a long, ethereal and mouthwateringly saline finish. Sensual, suave and seamless, its beautifully refined tannins are, analytically, more abundant than even those of the 2022 vintage, yet they are so brilliantly integrated as to be near-imperceptible. Crafted for longevity, though its refined structure will make it surprisingly approachable at an early age.
97-99 Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate.

Les Carmes Haut-Brion 2023 has an opaque purple-black colour and needs a little swirling and coaxing to bring out fabulously pure, well-defined notes of juicy black cherries, blackcurrant pastilles, ripe juicy blackberries, and liquorice, leading to hints of tar, peonies, wet slate, and black olives, with a touch of Sichuan pepper. A beguiling 2023 with fully ripe black fruit characters and a paradoxical airiness, it really makes your head spin in the best possible way!
96-98 Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW.

Elderflower and peony aromatics, stunning inky plum colour that is very much a signature of Carmes, where it looks so enticing and ripe visually, and then on the palate you feel this contrasting vibrant lift and drinkability. Back to the signature squid ink flavour that is the key marker of ripe Cabernet in the vintage, and here the grippy slate texture slows everything slows, slowly humming through the palate. Has a sappy, drinkability, with crushed rose petals and salted cracker salinity. Distinctive, intense, one for Carmes lovers to celebrate.
96 Jane Anson.