Avis professionnels
Robert Parker (97)
95-98
The 2025 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a blend of 54% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot, one of the highest proportions of Cabernet Franc at the estate and comparable to 2016. It was vinified with 65% whole clusters and matured in 70% new oak. It reveals a complex, harmonious bouquet of pomegranate, iris and peony, intertwined with cassis, mulberries and dark berries. Medium- to full-bodied, dense and structured, it’s deep and layered, its concentrated core of fruit framed by velvety structuring tannins, concluding with a long, mineral-inflected finish. Combining tension with an ethereal profile, it delivers remarkable clarity, freshness and elegance. While slightly more overtly structured at this stage than the prodigious 2022, it remains impeccably balanced.
James Suckling (100)
99-100
The precision is so seductive and intellectual, with aromas of fresh flowers, iron, graphite, cedar, blood oranges and black fruit. It's medium-bodied with a compact palate of intense tannins that melt into the wine. Rather weightless in nature. It kicks in at the end with incredible intensity and focus. 13% alcohol. 65% whole cluster. 54% cabernet franc, 29% cabernet sauvignon and 17% merlot, mostly co-fermented.
Jancis Robinson (17.50)
Poised, precise and perfumed. Resonates with aromatic fruit on the palate. Lovely texture, the fine-grained tannins silky and fresh. A little sweetness of ripe fruit but the finish lively and long.
Vinous (97)
96-98
The 2025 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a huge, powerful wine that is going to need many years to come into its own. Dark red/purplish fruit, lavender, incense, melted road tar and licorice make a bold entrance. Fertility in the Merlots was low. As a result, the 2025 has the highest amount of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon ever, 83% in total as opposed to the more typical 70% or so. Whole clusters, always a part of the approach here, are 65%. Time on skins was 45 days at 27°C (80.6°F) compared to the 35 days at 30°C (86°F) that is more typical. Readers will find an especially deep, potent Carmes, a wine that will need the better part of a decade to shed some of its considerable baby fat. It's a telling example of the vintage, with 1% less alcohol than in most recent years. Today the 2025 is a mere infant. It's another exceptional wine from Technical Director Guillaume Pouthier and his team.
Jeb Dunnuck (98)
96-98
Deeper-hued than the C des Carmes cuvée, with a gorgeous perfume of red, blue, and black fruits intermixed with graphite, leafy herbs, iris, and subtle floral, minty, and almost peppery nuances, the 2025 Château Carmes Haut-Brion is based on 54% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Merlot, vinified with 65% whole clusters. On the palate, it's wonderfully textured and medium to full-bodied, with a round, layered, expansive mouthfeel and ultra-fine tannins. I love its overall balance, it has no hard edges, and while there's plenty of tannins here (IPT 82), they're perfectly integrated and polished. It checks in at 13% alcohol with a pH of 3.59, and this is just loaded with charm and character.
Falstaff (100)
Deep dark ruby garnet, violet reflections, delicate edge brightening. Ripe dark berry fruit, a hint of plums, floral touch, pleasant herbal spice, some nougat and orange zest. Complex, yet lively, ripe cherries and cranberries, fine, ripe tannins, literally opens up in the mouth, delicate extract sweetness, lingers for minutes, already very convincing in its youth, cassis and ripe cherries on the finish, delicate and multi-faceted, great future potential.
