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Bordeaux 2012: a Pessac year

By April 30, 2015Critic Reviews

Robert Parker’s scores for Bordeaux 2012 in bottle were released on the Wine Advocate this afternoon. Back in 2013, Parker observed that “while 2012 is not a great vintage, it is an excellent one in Pomerol, Pessac-Léognan and for some St.-Emilions”. This continues to be reflected in his in-bottle scores, with the highest scoring wines coming from Pessac-Léognan and Pomerol.

Top5inbottle

The wine of the vintage, Haut Brion, was awarded 98 points after being initially awarded 93-95 points in barrel. Parker noted that, “the wine shows subtle barbecue smoke notes in the background, but is full-bodied, stunningly concentrated and builds incrementally, yet finishes with luxurious, almost extravagant amounts of fruit and intensity.”

Mission Haut Brion also showed well: it was upgraded from a barrel range of 91-94 to 97 points in bottle.

Encouragingly, a number of more affordable brands also saw upgrades of several points. This included Haut Batailley (92 points, up from a barrel range of 85-87), which was described as “dramatically better from bottle than barrel … bigger boned, richer and more flamboyant than this wine normally tends to be”.

Grand Puy Ducasse moved from 84-86 to 90, while Issan was upgraded from 87-89 to 95 and Alter Ego moved from 88-90 to 93.

To view Parker’s full in-bottle scores and read the interesting accompanying report, visit www.erobertparker.com