With Hart, Ben, SM, Jeff, QH, Brandon, Charmaine, BSG, and Maisy.

This is a little bit of a rare Pokémon. The Chateau existed right next to La Mission Haut-Brion, and was eventually subsumed under the latter, with 2005 being the last vintage as an independent label. What I didn’t know was that the vines are now specifically used towards making LMHB’s second wine, and not the grand vin.

On inspection, the cork was in great condition, and I decided to use a normal cork screw. However the moment it pierced the cork, it sank in too quickly – looks like the core has become very soft and delicate. Swapped out to a Durand, and was thankfully able to extract it in 1 piece. The cork was just half saturated, looked very good but was just soft.

On the nose: this was not what I expected from an aged Pessac-Leognan. This had a touch of blackcurrant, but actually came across predominantly red fruited with cherries and red plums. Light oak. A touch of charcoal/smoke. Just very pretty, high purity and intensity of fruits, coming across younger than it is.

On the palate: oh, just silky. Perfectly resolved tannins. Palate coating. Glowing fresh acidity. Mid [truncated in screenshot]