Château Barde-Haut Château Barde-Haut Saint-Émilion Grand Cru 2022 750ml

I always love this wine, and the 2020 Château Barde-Haut is a quintessential Saint-Emilion revealing a deep ruby/purple hue, awesome notes of red plum, cherries, tobacco leaf, and chalky earth, full-bodied richness, bright acidity, and fine tannins. A gorgeous wine, it will benefit from 4–5 years of bottle age and keep for two decades. (Jeb Dunnuck)

Aromas of black and blue fruit, toasted spices, walnut and dark chocolate. Medium- to full-bodied with a juicy character and firm, polished tannins which build on the palate. Well-balanced, structured and compact with velvety texture and hints of spices and bark to close. Lingering finish. Try after 2027. (James Suckling)

The 2019 Barde-Haut is beautifully defined on the nose, very pure with precise blackberry, briary, violets and iris flower, harmonious. The palate is medium-bodied with finely chiseled tannins, cohesive and mineral-driven; the terroir is very expressive towards the finish that lingers in the mouth. Wonderful, assured and with great potential. Tasted at the Barde-Haut vertical at the château. (Neal Martin)

The 2020 Barde-Haut is just as compelling it was from barrel. Blueberry jam, crème de cassis, hard candy, spice, new leather and lavender infuse the 2020 with exotic beauty. Soft contours and silky tannins add to its immediacy. Bright acids lend vibrancy to play off all the natural opulence. The 2020 is a fine vintage of Barde-Haut, one of the best in recent memory. The intensely saline finish alone is a thing of beauty. (Antonio Galloni)

The 2022 Barde-Haut has a lovely bouquet with pure black cherries, boysenberry, crushed violet and dates. This is rich yet has impressive clarity. The palate is full-bodied with fine-grain tannins, gentle grip, mineralite and a precise finish. It's quite a bold Barde-Haut whose depth and density suggest it will require several years to soften, but it will be worth the wait because the finesse will bloom with bottle age. This may ultimately rest at the top of my banded score.

This beautiful estate is located on the eastern side of the appellation, and they consistently turn out brilliant wines. The 2019 Château Barde-Haut reveals a deep purple hue to go with classic limestone-influenced aromas and flavors of ripe black cherries, chalky minerality, chocolate, and white truffle. More medium to full-bodied and elegant than overtly powerful, its balance is spot on, it has beautiful tannins, and a great finish. It shows the vintage style perfectly and will benefit from 4–5 years of bottle age, and cruise for over two decades in cold cellars. (Jeb Dunnuck)

The 2022 Barde-Haut is gorgeous. Rich and explosive, the 2022 offers up copious notes of blueberry jam, crème de cassis, lavender, mint and licorice, with pretty jasmine overtones that add exotic beauty. The tannins here are often a bit burly, but in the 2022 much of that softened. This is an impressive showing.

A velvety red with lovely creamy tannins, juicy fruit with black berries, spice, ink and boysenberry. Medium to full body with a solid structured and depth. Velvety texture. Hints of sea salt.

The 2020 Barde-Haut unwinds in the glass with aromas of blackberries, cassis and blueberries mingled with hints of violets and spices. Medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy, with a deep core of ripe but lively fruit, powdery tannins and a floral finish, it’s the usual blend of more or less 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc (the latter increasingly deriving from massal selections taken at Clos l’Eglise). (William Kelley)

Unwinding in the glass with aromas of plums, wild berries, dark chocolate and creamy new oak, the 2022 Barde-Haut is medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy, with a taut, youthfully structured profile and youthfully firm tannins. Exhibiting attractive purity of fruit and tension, gentler extraction would have seen it score higher.