The Wine Advocate | RP 97-99
Published: Apr 26, 2024

Guillaume Pouthier and his team have once again crafted one of Bordeaux's most unique and characterful wines. Revealing aromas of mulberries and raspberries mingled with notions of vine smoke, orange zest, rose petals and spices, the 2023 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is medium to full-bodied, fleshy and concentrated, with a powerful, vibrant and complete mid-palate, concluding with a long, ethereal and mouthwateringly saline finish. Sensual, suave and seamless, its beautifully refined tannins are, analytically, more abundant than even those of the 2022 vintage, yet they are so brilliantly integrated as to be near-imperceptible. This blend of 50% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot is crafted for longevity, though its refined structure will make it surprisingly approachable at an early age. It's maturing 70% in new oak barrels, 20% in 18-hectoliter foudres and 10% in amphorae. A creditable yield of 50 hectoliters per hectare represents a decided agronomic success in what was a challenging growing season.

"2023 was a year of involvement, humility, responsiveness and delicacy," Guillaume Pouthier remarked, describing the 2023 vintage at Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion. Consistently, this estate delivers some of the most inspiring wines in Bordeaux, and the 2023 vintage upholds this tradition. Pouthier deftly navigates the vintage's challenges, avoiding early grape picking; he steers clear of excessive extraction, unlike some of his peers, and focuses instead on preserving the vibrant flavors and aromas with the purity and precision of the mouthfeel, achieved through significant sorting (about 10% of the crop) to remove scorched berries. Despite these meticulous efforts, the 2023 vintage doesn't quite match the 2022 vintage's more vibrant bouquets. Yet, there is potential for surprises post-élevage, once the wines are bottled, leveraging the estate's expertise in this complex craft. Moreover, the 2023 C des Carmes, which is not the second wine of Les Carmes Haut-Brion and offers an interpretation of different terroirs of sandy and gravelly soils in Martillac, is arguably one of the best produced at this address.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 98-99
Published: May 15, 2024

This is a fantastic wine and very, very exciting, with purity and brightness to the floral, spicy and blackberry notes. It’s full and deep with agility and weightless. You feel the greatness in this. The winemaker says this is more concentrated and structured than the 2022. Lightly salty. 60% whole-berry fermentation. 50% cabernet franc, 30% cabernet sauvignon and 20% merlot. From organically grown grapes.

Les-carmes-haut-brion.com

2023 was a year of… ... Involvement. Humility. Responsiveness. Delicacy.
Autumn was slow to set in, with the first cold spells and little water. Fortunately, the days didn’t fail to shorten and the vines quietly entered the winter. A calm, cool and fairly dry winter. 
Early mild weather in March. A few shivers at bud burst, then rain. Mild and humid. One, the other or both. It took exceptional presence on the part of the team of winegrowers to act with decisive precision and speed. For us, this is the only way to take care of our vines: to be there, to observe and to act to the nearest millimetre, minute by minute.
At the end of the summer, the vintage mapped out more clearly. Harvest conditions were fine, so we could be completely flexible in our choices to express the uniqueness of each of these little places that make up the wines of Les Carmes.
In the cellar, we went even further with infusion - submerged cap vinification. We have entered a new phase with the use of tailor-made tools, based on our experiments with extraction in recent vintages. As for ageing, the further we go, the more we are willing to abandon a set protocol in favour of a different approach for each wine, depending on its profile and progress. Choosing not to choose... in advance.
Embracing this complexity. We plan to let ourselves be surprised, to taste what the wines have to say to us, to bring them to the bottle with the right touch, for several more exciting months.

Full-bodied to tubular, the wines are now stretching out. Freshness and drinkability the watchwords. Explosive delicacy, mineral finesse, sappy, resinous atmosphere, notes of iris and violet, elderflower, black and tangy.
Harvest dates: 11 to 25 Sept. 2023
Whole bunches: 60%
Blend: 50% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot
Analysis: 13.5% alc. vol. - pH 3.62
Ageing (in progress): 70% new barrels, 20% vats of 18hl, 10% amphoras.

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