TN 2001 Ch. La Mission Haut Brion

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

This was good. Even allowing that I am more demanding of the better-reputed wines and more solicitous of the others, from the initial impression until the last drop, this was "up there" with the other wines I've most enjoyed. Of course I'm still short in experience of a couple of firsts and many other great wines in any vintage - and then there's the whole issue of the best wines in the best vintage - yet that did not impair my enjoyment of this wine. I would say it is enjoyable now but it might still take some 3-10 years to completely let go and realize the top of its game. No matter, it will be good for some time. Open and approachable but with plenty of support and just showing some secondary characteristics. Nicely balanced. I thought this had all of the characteristic Graves elements, smoke, coals, earth and just a bit of plushness from the merlot component. A flaw perhaps to some, though I liked it, was a noticeable dill component to the bouquet and the slightly sour notes this cast in the flavor, which I also liked. I assume this will absorb/abate. This was more powerful and driven the the 2001 Haut-Bailly had recently. It was more concentrated too but was still claret-weight, even as it just tipped maybe from medium-bodied into something bigger. Really this is what I like in Bordeaux.

[JimHow]

Drinking pretty well these days Hound.

[DavidG]

Yes indeed.

I haven't had the '01 La Mish,
But it sounds from your note to be quite delish

[AlexR]

Thanks for your notes Hound.

I have one bottle...

When I posted on Internet forums how much I liked the 2001 vintage (I bought a mixed case of biggies "en primeur") I was pretty much shouted down.
How foolish I was! There was still time to buy the 2000s, even if the price had shot up!

Well, 2001 is a classic Bordeaux vintage, an "Atlantic" year, with wines the way I like them.
The way you obviously do to .

All the best,
Alex R.

[Rieslingfan]

Sounds great. I opened the 2001 PLL, and while the texture was glorious, it was corked to hell and back.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

It's funny, Alex. Not that I would eschew a great Bordeaux from a "great" vintage, is it possible that you actually get a more "Bordeaux-like" experience from good (or great) wines in merely average vintages? It certainly isn't very risky any longer to count on quality since it seems that with so many wines every care is taken to make the best wine possible out of the best material possible. Not a whole lot is being left to chance or whim, if it ever was. And speaking of risk, in those average vintages one might pay one-quarter of the price for a really good and quite "typical" wine than would one pay in a heralded/hyped vintage.

This is not at all to say that the vintages of the century produce atypical wines, or at least that's not what I'm saying. I am cognizant of many observations/complaints to that effect, or to the effect that these warm, perfect vintages can tend to produce wines in the style of California or whatever.

[DavidG]

Well, with the trend towards greater ripeness and higher alcohols, the weather in the less-great years probably does result in wines that are closer in style to the classics being produced over 20 years ago. We see the same comparison in Chateauneuf du Pape, where a lot of people are not enamored of the really ripe years. I was a huge fan of 2007 CduP early on, but I seem to have lost my taste for many of them.

[robert goulet]

I believe '01 was very good to pessac

Bahans haut brion was freaking amazing...amazing
SHL was pure gorgeous pessac stones, leather, earth