100pts Decanter

Deep and brooding, this wine is beautifully floral with violets, irises and peonies alongside ripe black cherries, liquorice and dark chocolate. Concentrated yet bursting with energy, it flows effortlessly. Vibrant red fruits strawberry, cherry, raspberry sit atop a mineral backbone of saline, wet stones. Crisp yet powdery tannins and bright acidity give incredible tension. Despite its depth, it feels almost weightless, so drinkable yet built to age. Pure, pristine and vibrant, with no trace of heat, just balance and finesse. A true expression of place. A sure-fire hit.

100pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2022 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is the finest wine bottled to date at this estate under Patrice Pichet's ownership and Guillaume Pouthier's direction. Unfurling from the glass with aromas of violet, iris, dark wild berries, pencil lead and mulberries, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated with a deep core of fruit beautifully framed by velvety, precise tannins, segueing into a long, saline and perfumed finish. Suave and harmonious, it was crafted with 70% whole bunches and matured in 70% new oak. This unconventional blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot represents a turning point for the estate, cementing its rapid ascendancy in the Bordeaux firmament.

100pts Vinous

The 2022 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a towering masterpiece from Technical Director Guillaume Pouthier. Dark and seamless in the glass, the 2022 presents an exotic mélange of black cherry, lavender, sage, blood orange, menthol, espresso and dried flowers, showing tremendous depth and substance in all of its dimensions. Time in the glass hints as to what is to come in the years and decades that follow. The 2022 is a co-ferment of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot done with 70% stems that saw six full weeks on the skins. Élevage is 70% new oak, 20% 18HL cask and 10% amphora. Most importantly, all the elements are so well balanced that nothing sticks out. Instead, it is the wine's total sense of harmony that is mind-blowing. Magnificent

99pts James Suckling

The purity and focus here is impressive with blackcurrants, crushed stones and floral undertones. The whole-bunch character comes through clearly with rose-stem and floral aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, this is always so delicious but has lots of integrated, open-grained tannins. 70% whole-cluster fermentation. 40% cabernet franc, 34% cabernet sauvignon and 26% merlot. Idiosyncratic. So attractive now but will age beautifully.

99pts The Wine Independent

The 2022 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 26% Merlot, 90% aging in oak (70% new barriques, 20% 18hl casks) and 10% in amphoras. Deep garnet-purple in color, it pops out of the glass with lifted notes of redcurrant jelly, wild blueberries, blackcurrant pastilles, and lavender, leading to cerebral wafts of cast-iron pan, dark chocolate, and dusty soil with a hint of licorice. The red and black berry flavors do pirouettes on the medium-bodied palate, featuring incredibly fine-grained tannins and fantastic tension that gives a shimmer to the very long mineral-laced finish. As usual, the alcohol is 13.5% (the stem inclusion absorbs some of the alcohol during fermentation) and the pH is 3.64. This is a vibrant, showy, immediately impactful wine that flies in the face of traditional Bordeaux, carrying it off with bags of grace and style. A slight carbonic character from the whole bunch juxtaposed by a rock-solid structure thanks to the ripe stem tannins creates a unique signature. 

98pts Jeb Dunnuck

The 2022 Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion checks in as a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Merlot that saw plenty of stems in the ferments and 20 months in 80% new barrels. Its deeper ruby/purple hue is followed by a sumptuous nose of red, blue, and black fruits, as well as leafy herbs, darker chocolate, crushed stone, and almost bloody, iron-like nuances. I love its overall balance on the palate, and it's medium to full-bodied, has a pure, layered mouthfeel, beautifully integrated tannins, and a great finish. It shows the class of this great terroir and will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and still be drinking well in 30-40 years. You'd be hard-pressed to describe this as Bordeaux in a blind tasting today, yet I have no doubt it will develop more and more classic Graves character over the coming decade. It’s a sensational, singular wine.

About the Wine

Among the classic elegance of Pessac-Léognan, the Carmes top wine has carved out its own niche. Unprecedented proportions of Cabernet Franc offer a silky power which is then supported by the intensity of Cabernet Sauvignon. Within this structure, Merlot develops rounded and refined fruitiness: balance is the order of the day, ensuring a style that is complex and delicious in equal measures.

A solar vintage, but the wine exceptionally different. The diversity of the plots, and hence the situations in our vineyard, reveals a wonderful palette of nuances. Proof of the brilliance and wonder that is possible from “less”. Focus on the essentials. Every day we are reminded of this quest. Grapes that reveal the deep nature of the place, that carry the life force, the freshness despite the summer heat. The vine shows us how it has reacted to the harshness of the climate with admirable flexibility. This plant shows us how much can be achieved with so little.

About the Winery

The new winery, designed by Philippe Starck and Luc Arsène-Henry, which opened in 2016, marked the start of a new era for the chateau. Combining art with state-of-the-art equipment, it embodies a new pursuit of excellence.

The winery, a wall of metal resting on the bed of the River Peugue, emerges dreamlike from the middle of the estate. Blending into the landscape thanks to the reflections that flit across its surface, it is both a feat of technical minimalism and a fitting memorial. By echoing the shape of a ship’s bow, it serves as a reminder of Bordeaux’s seafaring history: a place where the sea has made wine’s fortune throughout the world.

The central harvest reception area opens up onto the vat room where 1,200 hectolitres of wine are fermented in oak, stainless steel or concrete. Below, where water encircles the structure, some 300 barrels sit patiently in ideal maturation conditions. Finally, the top floor is crowned with a tasting room offering a vineyard panorama, where the year’s work can be savoured.

Blend: 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 26% Merlot