Score: |
92 JG. "The 1986 vintage at Haut Bages Libéral is really outstanding and this has to be one of the great sleepers to be found in the Left Bank in this fine year. The bouquet is deep, pure and vibrant, offering up scents of cassis, black cherries, tobacco leaf, a bit of tariness, gravelly soil tones and a discreet base of smoky new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and quite tangy, with lovely focus and grip, a good core and a long, ripely tannic and well-balanced finish. This is still a few years away from really fully blossoming, but it is not a bad drink today by any stretch of the imagination." John Gilman, View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2016, Issue #6 |