2025, Château Haut-Bages Libéral, PAUILLAC, Grand Cru Classé

2025 is 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc.

One of the best Haut-Bages Libérals I've tasted from barrel. Perfumed blackcurrants, quite dark and true to form with a gorgeous perfume. Aromatics are great. Juicy and crisp, sleek and svelte, definitely quite streamlined but with such soft, velvety tannins that give grip but support the vibrant fruit so well. I love this. Really very classic, muscular but gentle with purity and focus. Such complex flavours and aromas. And the acidity is excellent. A very friendly wine that will be easy to approach. Half gravelly soil, half limestone with 50% chalk on Cabernet – really rare for a cru classé.
96 Georgina Hindle, Decanter.

The 2025 Haut-Bages Libéral is a powerful, tightly wound wine. Bright acids and beams of tannin are front and centre. In this tasting, it is driven and also very shut down. The saline-drenched finish reverberates with tension. Intense red-toned fruit, chalk, mint, white pepper and blood orange fill out the layers.
93-96 Antonio Galloni, Vinous.

The 2025 Haut-Bages Libéral has pure black cherries, cassis and violet scents that burst from the glass. Wonderful delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, a silver thread of acidity and, crucially, that tingle from the limestone soils that defines the finish. What a superb and distinctive Pauillac this is. 2031-2055.
93-95 Neal Martin.