1979 Haut-Brion, Pessac-L̩ognan

One of the top three or four wines of the vintage, the 1979 Haut-Brion has put on weight in its evolution in the bottle, and although fully mature, shows no signs of decline. The color is a dark garnet with some amber at the edge. The wine shows a very sweet nose of fruitcake intermixed with damp earth, tobacco, smoke, liquid mineral, black currants, and a hint of creosote. Medium to full-bodied, with excellent power and lushness, this is an atypically rich, layered, authoritatively flavorful wine that seems almost out of character for the vintage. (RP)