The 2022 Château Haut-Batailley is much more structured and darker than the Verso, offering classic Pauillac cassis, currant, tobacco leaf, melted chocolate, and espresso nuances, with an almost iron-like hint that emerges with time in the glass. Full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it's nevertheless balanced and textured. It's a brilliant wine, if not the finest vintage I've tasted from this château. 94-96+

The 2022 Haut-Batailley is matured in 65% new oak for a planned 16 months. It has a very intense and almost untamed bouquet that explodes from the glass, and only after five or ten minutes does it begin to show some restraint. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy, fresh and multi-layered tannins, not dissimilar to the Mouton-Rothschild that I tasted a couple of hours earlier. With a satin-textured finish, this will need a decade in the cellar and some taming during élevage. Like a young tiger at the moment.

Classy and very focused with blackberry and blackcurrant character. The tannins nicely melt into the wine with finesse and weightlessness. Elegan

A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, the 2022 Haut-Batailley offers up aromas of sweet berries and plums mingled with licorice and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, firm and structured, it's a serious, rather muscular and extracted wine that begins to nod toward its stablemate Lynch Bages in style.