Château La Mission Haut-Brion is an estate in the Pessac-Léognan appellation in the northern Graves, a few miles southwest of Bordeaux's city center. Its near-neighbor and sister estate Château Haut-Brion was the only estate from the region featured in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, but La Mission Haut-Brion (rated a Graves Grand Cru in the 1959 rankings) is often judged and priced as the equal of Haut-Brion and the other first growths.

The old school of the UK wine market have long loved the wines of Chateau Talbot, and the 2010 would have them purring. Chateau Talbot is a producer that occupies a large (102 hectares) swathe of land under vine in Medoc and makes wines that are set to a more traditional style, including rich wood scents, firm tannins, some rustic charm and a cassis-meets-violet fruit profile. This is a superb release of the wine, reminscent of classic Talbots that are sinewy when young, but still approachable, and for enthusiasts, glorious with cellar time.

"Replacing the Petit Chapelle cuvee and first made in 2015, the 2016 Hermitage La Maison Bleue is smoking good. Black fruits, charcoal, powdered rock, currants and chocolate notes all give way to a big, concentrated, impressively structures barrel sample that has tons of potential. I expect the tannin will have integrated by the time this is released, but a few years of bottle age still recommended." - Jeb Dunnuck