Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion 2023

Slightly higher in Cabernet Franc than usual, the 2023 Les Carmes Haut-Brion opens with a nuanced bouquet of cassis, cassis leaf, licorice, dark berries, wisteria and blueberry. Medium- to full-bodied, fleshy yet strikingly linear, it’s defined by a tensile structure and a crystalline precision that gives the wine remarkable clarity. The tannins are exquisitely refined—silky yet laser-focused—imparting a sense of purity and balanced. Despite 90% new oak, the élevage is seamlessly absorbed, shaping the wine’s structure without encroaching on its intrinsic balance and precision. Kudos!

First impression is dark, refined fruit, both rich and deep. A real beauty even in youth (and this was at the very end of a tasting of 60+ wines). Extremely smooth, very long and remarkably fresh. Dark, attractively savoury aftertaste. 

This is a fantastic wine and very, very exciting, with purity and brightness to the floral, spicy and blackberry notes. It’s full and deep with agility and weightless. You feel the greatness in this. The winemaker says this is more concentrated and structured than the 2022. Lightly salty. 60% whole-berry fermentation. 50% cabernet franc, 30% cabernet sauvignon and 20% merlot. From organically grown grapes.

A blend of 50% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20% Merlot, Les Carmes Haut-Brion 2023 has a pH of 3.62. It was fermented with 60% whole bunches and it is aging in 70% new oak barrels, 20% new oak vats of 18 hl, and 10% amphorae. It has an opaque purple-black color and needs a little swirling and coaxing to bring out fabulously pure, well-defined notes of juicy black cherries, blackcurrant pastilles, ripe juicy blackberries, and licorice, leading to hints of tar, peonies, wet slate, and black olives, with a touch of Sichuan pepper. The light to medium-bodied palate is airy and refreshing, with a solid backbone of very fine-grained, prancing tannins and bold freshness supporting the pristine black fruit flavors, finishing long and minerally. I had to spend a good 15 minutes with this wine to allow it to grow: it is incredibly tight to begin but expands to become something powerful. A beguiling 2023 with fully ripe black fruit characters and a paradoxical airiness, it really makes your head spin in the best possible way!

Extremely floral nose; peony, iris, rose, expressive and aromatic with black fruits too, liquorice, dark fruit, cedar, some black chocolate and coffee bitterness on the nose too. Smooth and supple, nicely weighted in the mouth, forward, grippy and bright with a soft chew - really quite polished and pristine. Seamlessly integrated with the acidity balancing the tannins and the ripe fruit with some mineral wet stone undercurrents and slight bitter liquorice and grapefruit skin on the finish. It’s a little serious, but certainly polished with a soft chew of strawberry and raspberry and stoney-edged tannins giving excellent terroir signature. Ripe, fresh, clean, fragrant, sleek and streamlined. It has a lovely style and lots of finesse from winemaker Guillaume Pouthier. Harvest 11-25 September, 60% whole bunch fermentation taking the alcohol down from 14.3% at picking to 13.5%. 3.62pH.

As to the Grand Vin 2023 Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, this beauty checks in as 50% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20% Merlot that was fermented with 60% whole cluster, brought up in 70% new barrels, with a good portion in foudre and amphora. It has a deep ruby/purple hue and vibrant aromatics of cassis and black cherries as well as leafy tobacco, spring flowers, woodsmoke, and graphite. Medium to full-bodied, it stays tight and compact on the palate, with a lively spine of acidity, beautiful precision and focus, ripe yet certainly present tannins, and outstanding length. It’s incredibly elegant, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this gain mid-palate density over the course of its élevage. It’s going to be long-lived.

With 80% of the two Cabernets, including 50% of Cabernet Franc that thrives on the chalk and clay soil, this wine is richly structured and with great fruits even at this stage. It is a dynamic wine, full of rich black fruits and a velvet texture.

Elderflower and peony aromatics, stunning inky plum colour that is very much a signature of Carmes, where it looks so enticing and ripe visually, and then on the palate you feel this constrasting vibrant lift and drinkablity. Back to the signature squid ink flavour that is the key marker of ripe Cabernet in the vintage, and here the grippy slate texture slows everything slows, slowly humming through the palate. Has a sappy, drinkablity, with crushed rose petals and salted cracker salinity. 60% whole cluster, harvest September 11 to 25. 3.6ph. Distinctive, intense, one for Carmes lovers to celebrate.

The 2023 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is increasingly a wine of seamlessness. Whereas the various components were once easily discernible, today Carmes is most often a wine of total beauty. The 2023 is a bit shy, especially in its aromatics. In other words, a pretty big departure from so many other recent vintages that have been far showier at this stage. Technical Director Guillaume Pouthier explains that he plans to give the 2023 longer aging, around 24-26 months, so he approached vinification and the early part of aging in a more reductive style than in the past. As always, Les Carmes is marked by its strong presence of Cabernet Franc and use of whole clusters, but as mentioned above, those signatures are less immediately evident than they once were. Les Carmes has been one of Bordeaux's stars over the last few years. I can't wait to see how the 2023 turns out.