The 2019 Château La Mission Haut-Brion is Merlot-dominated, checking in as 53% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc. It's a more opulent wine compared to Haut-Brion, and the Merlot is front and center here, with ripe, sexy black cherry and redcurrant fruits as well as licorice, scorched earth, cedar pencil, and graphite aromas and flavors. Rich, exuberant, and straight up sexy on the palate, it's full-bodied, has a deep, layered mid-palate, building tannins, and a heavenly finish. Just a prodigious, powerful, off-the-charts expression of this terroir, it actually reminds me slightly of the 2005 (or 1998?) with its mix of sexiness and opulence. This is one of the few 2019s that will make your eyes roll back in your head. It will need 10-15 years of cellaring, but it’s a sensational wine on every level and will have 40+ years of prime drinking.

Fully knitted down but already showing its class, with a nuanced, complex mix of cassis, blackberry and black cherry fruits shot through with bitter orange peel, crushed stones and sage leaf. The most gorgeous juicy freshness runs through the muscular tannins, with the same violet flower freshness that was found in La Chapelle this year. Just so full of enticing campfire and gunsmoke on this finish, this is a wine that will go for years. Love it, one of my wines of the vintage. Bottled May. This is an upscore.

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion unwinds in the glass with aromas of inky berry fruit, wild plums and cherries mingled with notions of warm spices, burning embers and creamy new oak. Full-bodied, deep and layered, it's rich and concentrated, with a deep core of fruit, bright acids and fine, powdery tannins. Powerful and tightly wound, this is less sumptuous and demonstrative out of the gates than its sibling Haut-Brion, but I suspect it possesses even greater potential. - William Kelley

Blackcurrants and crushed stones with violets and roses. Earthy and black truffle notes, too. Medium to full body with firm, silky tannins that are layered and attractive, in a muscular and toned fashion. Iodine, ink, earth and bark with wet-vine undertones to the fruit at the end. Reserved and impressive. Best after 2025.

A serious, age-worthy vintage of La Mission Haut Brion here. With a deep, dark, rich hue, the wine pops from the glass with its smoky essence made even better by its layers of black currants, black plums, tar, herbs, cigar box, and tobacco accents. The palate is full-bodied, powerful, rich, intense, mouth-filling, and long. Everything is in balance, meshing power with precision, purity, freshness, length, and complexity. Like all the great vintages of La Mission Haut Brion, this is going to demand time in the cellar before it unfurls and displays all it has to offer. Drink from 2036-2060.

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion, made from 53% Merlot, 39.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7.5% Cabernet Franc, is deep garnet-purple in color. Initial oaky overtones soon give way to notes of crushed black and red currants, fresh boysenberries, and pencil lead, followed by wafts of truffles and tapenade. The full-bodied palate delivers mouth-coating black fruits with a grainy texture and long earthy finish.

The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion has a beautiful, floral bouquet with touches of pressed violet infusing the black fruit, exquisite delineation and focus; the new oak is seamlessly integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins, pixelated, hints of blood orange and graphite towards the beautifully-framed finish that lingers long in the mouth. Exceptional. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting. -- Neal Martin

(97+ points) The 2019 La Mission Haut-Brion is fabulous. There's no doubt about that. When it might actually be ready to drink is another matter! Soaring aromatics are so alluring. On the palate, though, the 2019 is incredibly reticent. Readers should be in no rush. Today, La Mission is a wine of huge potential. Dark red cherry, rose petal, incense, iron and gravel hint at what is to come. -- Antonio Galloni

Spice notes and floral characters abound on the nose. A very complex, refined and slightly reticent wine on first tasting. Dark berry and blackcurrant fruit, powerfully structured with fine-grained tannins and new oak to provide structure for ageing. Despite the 14.5% alcohol there is great elegance with La Mission in 2019 – not as showy as Haut-Brion but potentially even more rewarding in the longer term.

Captures the essence of the vintage as well as possible, with a lovely swath of cassis, plum puree and cherry compote flavors that glides along, showing just enough buried spine in the form of alder and iron notes to give this form. Features alluring red tea and savory details that add range on the lengthy finish. Approachable already, but there's no rush here. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2023 through 2038. — J.M.