Collection: Three Decades of La Mission Haut-Brion

Among collectors, there is no doubt that La Mission Haut-Brion is among Bordeaux’s greatest wines. The best La Mission vintages can not only compete with, but sometimes best, the First Growths. All of this is well-known to wine lovers, yet somehow remains a secret to the market, which does not value La Mission as it should. Sometimes (witness the 1999, 2017 and 2018 available here), La Mission is scarcely half the price of its First Growth counterpart, Haut-Brion, despite sharing a winemaking team.

La Mission can be a little more sinewy than Haut-Brion; a touch more compact and dense in early life. But with any amount of bottle age, all the familiar cigar and peat scents emerge, as does the mellifluous texture and smoky finish. The 1995 and 1999 are at their peak today, while the 2016 is enjoying a resplendent adolescence. The younger vintages, while all promise today, represent an outstanding opportunity to purchase these wines at close to release price.

Finally, how about a ready-to-drink example of the second wine, La Chapelle? We are excited to offer the 2018 vintage, displaying “juicy black fruits, nicely offset by lovely freshness” as detailed by The Wine Advocate.