2000 Château Haut-Bages Libéral- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (8/21/2019)
6th time I have had this wine from a case I purchased on futures for $20 per bottle. The cepage for the 2000 is 80% Cab Sauvignon, 20% Merlot. Decanted 2 hours before drinking at Hawkshead restaurant. Corkage was waived. Crimson color with some browning at the rim. Earthy nose with forest floor aromas. Notes of dried mushrooms, beef blood, currant and leather. Firm tannins. This is still going strong at 19 years old and drinking very well now. 93 points.
The 2000 HBL is just amazing Jeff and I share your opinion of an appropriate rating/score of this wine. I have half a case left of this too. I recently posted about how a so called “Bordeaux expert” with his own blog trash talked the 2000 HBL. (Just google, 2000 Chateau Haut Bages Liberal, and you will be stunned at the opinion of this guy) I slightly hesitate to call the wine blogger a &^#%, but how could he lack sufficient wine knowledge and experience to not immediately recognize that he just drank a corked or heat damaged bottle of HBL?!?
Yep, Alex (for some reason that is not apparent) you somehow did not realize that you drank a completely non representative bottle of the 2000 Chateau Haut Bages Liberal and therefore, you wrote a rather inacurate review of this wine back on May 22, 2016 The 2000 HBL you drank clearly was not properly stored. As you are based in Bordeaux, perhaps you can telephone HBL and ask for them to sell you a properly cellared bottle of the 2000 so that you can re-review the wine for your blog. If you get to Philly, I will gladly share some of the 2000 HBL with you (and others) and let you compare it to other properly cellared 2000 Bordeaux. I should also note, I had two cases of the wine purchased in 2015, drinking over a case of the wine and never had one slightly off bottle. I certainly agree Julian that due to bottle variation even a bottle with good provenance and proper temperature control could be a “bit faded”. However, the wine that Alex drank in mid 2016 was so not a “bit faded” as it was so dead that only the “most hard-bitten adepts of old tertiary Bordeaux” would enjoy it. With all that being noted, I do fully agree that HBL is the poor man’s Lynch Bages!!! Great phrase.
Lastly, Alex, I emailed you through the email address on your blog back on Christmas day 2016 and asked you to pull your review of the 2000 HBL from your blog. I hope you can either pull/delete the blog post, or perhaps update it based upon a tasting of a representative bottle of the wonderful 2000 Chateau Haut Bages Liberal.
John. Am I censoring or am I pointing out an injustice to the winemaker and crew and the other good people at Haut Bages Liberal? This is an internet blog. I have no power to censor anyone. I am certainly “calling out” what I believe to be a review by Alex that is shocking in that he didn’t recognize that he had a bad bottle of wine, and instead published through the internet the concept that older bottles of HBL such as the 2000 can’t age well. Alex is a wine professional and I am willing to bet that he can stomach some criticism. Alex could have tasted this wine in 2016 and said to himseelf…“hmmm…are older HBL’s like this wine incapable of aging, or did I just drink a bottle that was flawed or improperly stored. Let me use the internet and see what other people have encountered with the 2000 HBL as that will help me figure out if I just drank an unrepresentative bottle of the wine so that I don’t make a blog post in which I publish an opinion that HBL can’t age well as perhaps that opinion might be a bit…off”
If Alex wants to let his review stand, certainly he can let it stand as its his blog. Alex is a wine professional, and he is entitled to make mistakes. I have made many, many mistakes in life and I learn from them. Alex could also retaste the wine, and publish a review of a 2000 HBL that he picks up from the Chateau and tell us how age worthy the 2000 HBL’s are that never took the trip over to the States.
Responding to Christopher … I’ve never seen anyone demand that a review that they disagree with be pulled.
As a devoted Berserker, I’m never shocked there are extreme differences of opinion about any given wine, or about a vintage (which seems to be part of the issue here). Since Alex says he’s lived in Bordeaux since 1978, has worked in the trade there and elsewhere, and has posted frequently here, I would expect he’d known when he had a plainly faulty or abused bottle, and I don’t write off his opinion as “an injustice.”
John. I agree with you that Alex should have the experience with wine, and Bordeaux in particular, to recognize if he had just drunk a plainly faulty or abused wine. About demanding? I certainly can’t demand anything, but I can opine that a wine professional should retry a wine that they essentially trash if there are reasons to believe that they had a bad bottle. It’s a question of wine ethics. Alex can let his opinion stand about the 2000 Chateau Haut Bages Liberal and how un age worthy he believes the wine to be. It’s up to him. Alex lives in Bordeaux. Alex could also take the 1 hour and 5 minute drive to HBL (according to Google maps) and pick up a bottle of the 2000 or taste the wine at the Chateau.
I have consumed multiple bottles of this wine since arrival in 2003 and I have to say I have consistently been underwhelmed. The wine was shy in its youth, naturally, but even last year it was stubbornly reclusive. So I am closer to Alex’s view of the wine than the OP.
But I’m happy others have enjoyed the wine more than I have. The garbage attacks on Alex and his opinion are just that and unworthy of further comment.
Neal, it’s apparent that you purchased your 2000 HBL from a reputable futures retailer such as Calvert, McArthurs, Pearsons, etc. Back in 2003 better Bordeaux future retailers were making sure that everything was shipped transatlantic in temperature controlled reefers. You probably have stored your 2000 HBL in a temperature controlled cellar. I would be willing to bet that you even have a propane tank powered back up generator with an automatic transfer switch so that if the power goes down, the wine will be fine. So it sure looks like the 2000 HBL that you drank has good provenance.
With the above being noted, does “stubbornly reclusive” mean that your 2000 HBL is not showing much fruit and that it needs to age more? I tend to think of that phrase applying to a wine that needs more time, rather than one that is overly tertiary. If you haven’'t read the substantive portions of Alex’s post from 2016 which would have been about 3 years after the wine was released, here it is.
“Well, I must say I was underwhelmed. The color looked older than its years. The nose was really very muted, but if you looked hard you could discern cherry, briar, humus, graphite, and cigar box aromas. The wine had a thin oily mouth feel and a wimpish aftertaste. I’m all for subtlety, but not to the point where this is the shadow of what a great growth Pauillac in a good year should be. This 2000 Haut Bages Libéral would unquestionably have been better years ago to all but the most hard-bitten adepts of old tertiary Bordeaux. And I’m willing to bet even they would be disappointed with this wine.
I’ve tasted more recent vintages of Haut Bages Libéral and think the estate is on the upswing. However, as a consumer, I will make sure to drink mine on the young side from now on.”
To me I interpret Alex’s review to be a description of a wine that more than 3 years ago tasted essentially dead, in which even the type of wine enthusiasts who adore old tertiary Bordeaux would be disappointed. So Neal, are you indicating that you palate when tasting the 2000 HBL comes to a closer description depicted in Alex’s review of how his wine drank in May of 2016, rather than others who have more glowing reviews of the wine who believe it is still drinking well now?
I have my big boy pants on and I can certainly take criticism. What I am pointing out with my posts and the motivation for my posts, is that I firmly believe that an ethical wine professional should re-taste a wine if he/she has a reason to believe that their written and published opinion of a wine was affected by a flawed bottle. Furthermore, that wine professionals should have the requisite knowledge to know when they have tasted a flawed wine, so as to re-taste before they publish what could be viewed as an opinion skewed by having drunk a flawed wine.
Alex has lived in bdx and worked in the wine trade for decades. He has earned respect from me, and I think, from most of not all of the others here. Your post not only suggests that he is incompetent but that he is unethical. In my view, that is wildly, profoundly inappropriate here. You could have made your point without the condescension. Sorry but that is how I read your multiple posts here.
Criticism Neal is certainly not pretty. But Alex is a professional, and he certainly can mess up like anyone. This does not mean that Alex’s opinions in the past, present and future should be ignored. However, I think Alex double fumbled on this one, and failed to catch a flawed wine resulting in him choosing to publish a negatively worded trash talk about the 2000 HBL and the ageability of prior vintages. Should Alex have trashed talked HBL and their 2000 HBL without re-tasting this wine from another source? I don’t think he should have. The vast majority of wine writers will not post a negative review of a wine on a first tasting and will do a re-tasting unless there is no reason to believe that one just drank a flawed wine. Alex didn’t do that. Good ethics is circling back when you think that perhaps you have published a review that is based on a bad bottle, and you re-taste it.
Hey, I understand sticking up for people who have consistently shown that they are wise and ethical. I sure get that. But I also understand that winemakers and Chateau’s should not be trash talked unless one has a really darn good reason for trash talking. Punch me all you want, but I am sticking up for HBL!
BTW, Neal, am I wrong about you having the propane back up generator, or am I wrong that you have a manual transfer switch and not an automatic transfer switch?
Jeff. Interesting that you indicate “(g)ive it a rest.” Why didn’t you write about your review and rating and opinion about ageability of the 2000 HBL from when you last had the pleasure of experiencing it in December of 2018.
Your opinion Jeff from less than a year ago was that the 2000 HBL could drink well for ANOTHER 15 to 20 years!!
“Just starting to drink well, this is a solid example of a classic Left Bank Bordeaux. Here you find crisp, bright, red fruits, some strictness in the tannins and all the cedar, forest leaf, cigar box, peppery herbs and both, sweet with tart, red fruits. This should offer pleasure for another 15-20 years.”
Make you think Jeff that Alex tasted a really flawed bottle?
First off, the purpose of my response was not to offer my note. It was to ask you why do you care that others agree with you or not. Which you still have not answered.
Next… That’s my opinion. Not his. Not yours. He, you and everyone is allowed to see and say what they please. And we do not need to agree. Ever!
I do not agree with a lot of folks on here quite often. But I would NEVER tell them they should remove their notes or that they need to retaste the wine.
As to what Alex tasted… I don’t care! I do not read his blog or most of his posts. My response is solely directed to you.
Jeff, this is an online bulletin board about wine. We express opinions. You are entitled to your opinion, and I am entitled to mine. We can both express it here. So, essentially you are telling me that I should not express my opinion about wine reviewer ethics which is really what this thread is about. I don’t share your opinion Jeff.
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