1983 | Chateau la Mission Haut Brion

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Red Wine: 1983 | Chateau la Mission Haut Brion

The 1983 is a beautifully mature red with complex notes of sweet cherries, tobacco smoke, herbs and spiced, earthy character.

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Producer: Chateau la Mission Haut Brion

Ratings: WA | 90 JG | 94

Vintage: 1983

Size: 750ml

ABV: 12%

Varietal: Bordeaux Blend Red

Country/Region: France, Bordeaux

The 1983 is a beautifully mature red with complex notes of sweet cherries, tobacco smoke, herbs and spiced, earthy character.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: This was the first vintage made under the administration of Jean Delmas. The most notable and dramatic change made at La Mission-Haut-Brion since 1983 became a more refined, polished, sophisticated style without the pure mass of older vintages, but also without the excesses of tannin and volatile acidity that sometimes plagued ancient vintages. The 1983, a very good vintage in the southern Medoc and Graves, is a relatively lightweight La Mission (particularly compared to the 1982) that is fully mature. Complex notes of smoked herbs, cigar tobacco, black currants, sweet cherries, damp earth and spice box jump from the glass of this dark garnet-colored wine. Medium-bodied with silky tannins, well-integrated, low acidity and abundant perfume, this fully mature 1983 should be consumed over the next decade.

• John Gilman: The 1983 vintage of La Mission Haut-Brion is a very lovely wine that was quite structured in its youth, but as it reaches thirty years of age, it has blossomed into a superb and utterly classic example of this fine year. The superb bouquet offers up a very complex blend of cassis, black cherries, a touch of eucalyptus, new leather, a nice touch of meatiness, a bit of medicinal La Mission overtones, incipient notes of black truffles, cigar smoke and chipotle pepper. On the palate the wine is deep, complex and beautifully balanced, with its full-bodied format showing off a beautiful core of fruit, a superb signature of soil, still a fair bit of moderate tannins and excellent focus and grip on the very long and well-balanced finish. A fine, fine vintage for La Mission that still could do with a few more years in the cellar to really reach its apogee.

Producer Information

Chteau La Mission Haut-Brion is an estate in the Pessac-Lognan appellation in the northern Graves, a few miles southwest of Bordeaux’s city center. Its near-neighbor and sister estate Chteau Haut-Brion was the only estate from the region featured in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, but La Mission Haut-Brion (rated a Graves Grand Cru in the 1959 rankings) is often judged and priced as the equal of Haut-Brion and the other first growths. The wine is particularly known for its fruit intensity, rounded, generous texture and silky tannins, and has received multiple 100-point ratings from American critic Robert Parker. La Mission Haut-Brion sees 18-22 months aging in barrel, with 80 percent new oak. Between 6000 and 7000 cases are produced each year. La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion has been the second wine since 2006, when it replaced Chteau La Tour Haut-Brion. The estate also produces two Semillon-based white wines: La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc (formerly Laville Haut-Brion) and, since 2009, La Clart de Haut-Brion. The latter acts as a combined second wine for La Mission Haut-Brion and Haut-Brion Blanc. The estate takes its name from the Lazarite missionaries who owned it from 1682 until the French Revolution. It has been owned since 1983 by Domaine Clarence Dillon, the owner of Haut-Brion.