Haut Batailley 2022 (750ML)

94-96+ JD / 94-95 JS / 93-95 VM / 92-94 WI / 91-93+WA / 93 DE

The 2022 Château Haut-Batailley is much more structured and darker than the Verso, offering classic Pauillac cassis, currant, tobacco leaf, melted chocolate, and espresso nuances, with an almost iron-like hint that emerges with time in the glass. Full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it's nevertheless balanced and textured. It's a brilliant wine, if not the finest vintage I've tasted from this château. - Jeb Dunnuck

Classy and very focused with blackberry and blackcurrant character. The tannins nicely melt into the wine with finesse and weightlessness. Elegant. 70% cabernet sauvignon and 30% merlot. - James Suckling

The 2022 Haut-Batailley is matured in 65% new oak for a planned 16 months. It has a very intense and almost untamed bouquet that explodes from the glass, and only after five or ten minutes does it begin to show some restraint. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy, fresh and multilayered tannins, not dissimilar to the MoutonRothschild that I tasted a couple of hours earlier. With a satin-textured finish, this will need a decade in the cellar and some taming during élevage. Like a young tiger at the moment. It has 14.2% alcohol. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

The 2022 Haut-Batailley, 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, is deep garnet-purple in color. It gallops out with bold notions of warm cassis, blackberry pie, and black raspberries, followed by hints of clove oil, tilled soil, and lilacs. The medium to full-bodied palate has a rock-solid backbone of firm, grainy tannins and plenty of freshness to support the taut, muscular fruit, finishing long and minerally. pH 3.73, TPI 92. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent

A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, the 2022 Haut-Batailley offers up aromas of sweet berries and plums mingled with licorice and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, firm and structured, it's a serious, rather muscular and extracted wine that begins to nod toward its stablemate Lynch Bages in style. - William Kelley, Wine Advocate

Ripe, dark bramble fruits, concentrated and intense on the nose and on the palate but with such juicy acidity. This is quite serious though, the fine but filling tannins have tension and give a sense of strictness to the palate which is nicely countered by the generous, fruity, juicy fruit profile. Well made, almost chewy but still cool and refreshing with blueberries, graphite, liquorice and tobacco edges. Nice and easy, but still intense with depth and cool minerality on the finish. 92 IPT. 3.73pH. Ageing 16 months, 65% new oak. - Georgina Hindle, Decanter