Some wines are just unattainable for me. Haut Brion is one such, and so we could only resort to trying their second wine, the Le Clarence. Haut Brion’s wines are not only infamous for aging well, but in fact often times require substantial bottle aging. 2010 was also a fantastic vintage, so you can imagine how excited I was.

At decant, wine was a dark purple with heavy body. Dark fruits, deep complex flavor and almost had a brown sugar / caramel note at the end of the nose.

We started dipping into it slowly at the 1.5 hours mark, through to the 3 hours mark, alongside the 2015 emidio Pepe. (Which btw, in retrospect was a fucking phenomenal pairing!)

Decanting the wine definitely helped the nose open up and bloom into a wide nose. That said, I don’t think the nose evolved in profile that much with time, although the tobacco definitely emerged more. For most parts, the nose is deep, dark, complex, rich, some characterized as cassis (which I disagree because I associate that with something else), oak & vanilla, and almost a cream cheese note. It was fucking decadent, rich and complex.

On the palette, it’s actually more medium bodied than heavy, with high acidity, rich red (not dark) fruits and looong finish. But the wine is young, so very young. Sure, by the 3 hour mark, the wine was much more balanced, but this could easily see another 5-10 years to round off the wine.

At 275, it’s a pricey pricey wine, especially for a second wine. I often times find second wines grossly disappointing (cough sassicaia’s supremely overrated second wine cough). But with patience, this is a remarkably good wine, and one worth cellaring. I just wish I could afford more. Rated 4.5, because of the age, but clear potential to be a 4.8