Celebrating 50 with a birth year wine

1975 Château Haut-Brion

Opened this tonight at Roots & Water and…wow. ’75 is a famously tough vintage in Bordeaux, but Haut-Brion is one of the few estates that actually thrived in it, and this bottle proved the point.

On the nose: Pure old-school Graves — dusty cedar box, dried tobacco leaf, old library bookshelf vibes. A faint red-currant sweetness underneath the age, plus that classic Haut-Brion smoky-brick note.

On the palate: Still alive. Medium-bodied, elegant, and way more structured than I expected for a 49-year-old wine. Tannins are resolved but not gone. Red currant, graphite, mushroom, cold fire-ash, and a touch of earthy truffle. Zero fruit bomb nonsense — just pure tertiary Bordeaux.