Burning campfire embers, smoke, flowers, black cherries, blackberries, and licorice are on display in the aromatics. Texturally, you find a creamy-freshness that hits all the right notes. Concentrated, long, deep, and voluptuous, the wine is almost palate staining in its delivery, coating your palate, yet, somehow it remains energetic, and vibrant. Packed with ripe, powerful fruits, the finish builds as it lingers, and expands seamlessly on your palate. For La Mission Haut Brion, this should start drinking well with just 5-7 years of age, yet, it promises to age for decades. The wine blends 58.3% Merlot, 38.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 3.4% Cabernet Franc, 13.6% ABV, 3.73 pH. Harvesting took place, September 1-September 18. Yields were low at 23 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2030-2075. - 98 to 100 Points - Jeff Leve

A blend of 58.3% Merlot, 38.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3.4% Cabernet Franc, the 2025 La Mission Haut-Brion reveals a refined bouquet of smoky cassis, dark berries, spices and lead pencil, framed by a deft touch of new oak. Medium- to full-bodied, dense and layered, it’s built around a multidimensional core of fruit underpinned by fine, velvety tannins, concluding with a long, perfumed and precise finish. Combining depth with energy, it delivers a textural yet controlled expression of power, with a real sense of freshness. The result is a particularly faithful, charming rendition of La Mission, defined by its elegance and overall precision. - 97 to 99 Points - Yohan Castaing

The 2025 La Mission Haut-Brion is one of my early favorites in this vintage. Aromatic and vibrant, with striking purity, the Grand Vin is magnificent. Red-toned fruit, blood orange, pomegranate, mint and cinnamon soar from the glass. Beams of supporting tannin lend energy and shape. In a word: compelling. One of the wines of the vintage. - 97 to 99 Points - Antonio Galloni

(Pessac-Léognan; 58.3% Merlot; 38.3% Cabernet Sauvignon; 3.4% Cabernet Franc; a final yield of 26 hl/ha; 13.5% alcohol; tasted at La Mission Haut-Brion). This is darker fruited than Haut-Brion with the additional Cabernet bringing extra depth, a coolness to the mid palate and a calm, tranquil, cool and fresh almost plungepool clarity to the wine. I love the gentle hint of cedar and the more obvious graphite notes. I love too the florality - here violet and lily of the valley; there's a little trace of incense too and the plume of smoke from the recently snuffed candle. Gracious in its dark fruit profile - mulberry, sloe, damson and black berry, with a little black cherry stone. Ample at first, very spherical in form in the mouth and incredibly dense and compact at the cool core. There's staggering concentration here but so much charm and even accessibility for such a great vintage with so much long-term potential. Long, gently tapering and almost eternal on the finish. Overall, I find this a little more vibrant and vivid, more lifted too than Haut-Brion itself. - 97 to 99 Points - Colin Hay

A gentle sweetness of bayberry and mulberry softly opens the tasting journey. Then comes a violet of quiet depth, drifting past almost unnoticed, before a trace of sandalwood rises softly from the shadows. Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2025 stretches across a wide aromatic spectrum, yet every transition feels seamless, as if wandering through a vast landscape scroll. On entry, the texture is smooth and supple, with a cocoa-like warmth wrapping around black cherry and blackberry in a slow, continuous flow across the palate. You can clearly feel both the richness of its substance and the scale of its energy. Rather than being simply layered, they are meticulously fitted together, like a mortise-and-tenon structure, seamless and perfectly unified, with aging potential that appears boundless. - 97 to 99 Points - Alexandre Ma