Château Haut-Bergey: Tasting & Drinking
As I have already alluded during the course of this profile, the wines of Château Haut-Bergey have a distinctive style, one which runs as a thread through the wines of the various domaines owned by the Garcin-Cathiard family. They have a tendency towards a slightly diffuse, warm and plump character, one which to my palate seems to suggest sur-maturité at harvest.
The fruit character, taking the red wine in 2015 as an example, is not crisply defined, but is one of baked fruit, the fruit character itself sometimes difficult to define. In 2015 I found a note of baked cherry, but there were also suggestions of praline and caramelisation which always do their best to mask the true fruit profile. In keeping with this style, the tannins are often broad, bold and heavily extracted. These characteristics do fade with time, but they never disappear completely. Even looking back to my more positive note on the 2005 vintage, below, I can still see the telltale signs of tannin domination and slightly fuzzy, maturing fruit.
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