Chateau Haut-Brion

The history of Chateau Haut-Brion could be traced back as far as the 14^th century, with the estate appeared to center around a manor house entitled Aubrion. In 1509 it came into the hands of Jean de Segur, a member of the same family that later took ownership of many of the top estates of Medoc, including Latour and Lafite.

But during 1520s ownership was passed to Philippe de Chabot, who went by the title of Amiral de Brion. It was later acquired by Pierre de Bellon, who held the same position in Libourne. He gave the property as a dowry for his daughter Jeanne who married to Jean de Pontac in 1525, naming the estate Chateau Pontac.

Jean was a wealthy shipping magnate and also a mayor of Bordeaux, and it was him who was responsible for establishing the vineyard, also enlarging the property by buying neighboring plots of land. In 1550 he began constructing the chateau. Jean had married twice more after Jeanne, and sired 15 offspring.

It was his son Arnaud who inherited the estate, who was later ordained a priest in 1557 and eventually became Bishop of Bazas. His son, Arnaud III, was an influential politician, but also dedicated to his estate and vineyard, and in 1666 under his direction, his son Francois-Auguste, established the Enseigne de Pontac, soon becoming one of London’s most fashionable inns.

In the establishment the wines were sold, and were very well received, successfully marketed the wine in England. Upon his death the estate and its associated debts were inherited by his two sisters, Therese and Marie-Anne, with Therese taking two-third, and Marie-Ann passing the portion to the Tresnes family through marriage.

Similarly, through marriage the portion of Therese was passed to her husband Jean-Denis d’Aulede de Lestonnac in 1654. Subsequently the estate was passed to their son Francois-Delphin, who also owned Margaux. Upon his death it was bequeathed to his sister Catherine, the widow of Francois-Joseph de Fumel, and it was the Fumel family that steered the estate during the Revolution.

After Catherine came Louis de Fumel, her son, but in 1749 upon his death it was passed to his son Joseph, who also marketed the wine in foreign lands actively, as well as formalizing the Fumel-Tresnes split, with the Tresnes portion separating from Haut-Brion. At the time the wine was increasingly appreciated by notables, including Thomas Jefferson in 1787 during his tenure as ambassador to France.

During the Revolution Joseph donated much of his wealth to the impoverished, but still he went to the guillotine and Haut-Brion was sequestered by the citizens. But after the Revolution, Joseph’s nephew Jacques quietly reacquired the property, eventually selling it to another famous name Talleyrand in 1801.

Talleyrand was a foreign minister and distinguished international diplomat, but given it scant attention before selling it three years later to Michel Aine, who again sold it to a partnership of Comynes and Beyerman. In 1836 it was again put on sale, with the new owner being Joseph-Eugene Larrieu, a banker. The wine was commanding a high price then and was of the highest quality to be included in the 1855 classification of Medoc, the only Graves estate in the list, but with the compound effect of oidium, phylloxera, world war, recession and great frost it went into decline just like others.

The Larrieu family was also owner of Bastor-Lamontagne, continued to persevere and purchased a section of the property from Countess of Vergennes, the portion which was lost to the Tresnes family in 1694, reuniting the property again. But the second and following generations did not provide the direction it needed and the property was eventually seized by the bank, and was taken under control of Societe des Glacieres in Paris.

The retired director Andre Gilbert had tried to sue the other properties using the Haut-Brion name and also selling part of the gardens to developers. In 1935 Andre offered the estate to the city of Bordeaux but was turned down, and it was the American financier Clarence Dillon that came to the rescue. Still under the Dillon family till now, but the estate was in fact under the limited company Domaine Clarence Dillon SA, to prevent division of the estate from one generation to the next.

Control shifted to his nephew Seymour Weller, supported by the manager and winemaker Georges Delmas, whose son Jean-Bernard succeeded in 1960, and now by Jean-Philippe Delmas in 2003, who contributed tremendously on the quality of the wines. With Seymour’s retirement in 1975, control passed to Clarence’s granddaughter Joan, who married to Philippe de Noailles, the Duc de Mouchy.

Within the estate there are two gravel croupes, with Gunzian gravel peppered with quartz, stone and flint, totaling 51 hectares. The vines consist of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, with also white varieties of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, without any Muscadelle. The crop is harvested by hand, with the ripe fruit delivered to the cellar for destemming, before fermenting inside stainless steel vats by lot on natural yeast.

There were new double-skinned fermentation vessels installed in 1991, with temperature control, and the must undergoes a post-fermentation maceration to enhance extraction of color and tannin. The wine is then run off into oak barrels which are fashioned on-site, for maturation of up to 24 months and occasionally even longer, before bottling.

The grand vin is Chateau Haut-Brion, with a second wine Bahans Haut-Brion, renamed in 2007 onwards to Clarence de Haut-Brion. The white produced is a classic Bordeaux blend which often vies for the position of top dry white in any Bordeaux vintage.

I have recently tasted the 2004 vintage and below is my tasting note:

Appearance
Bright and clear, it has deep ruby color, with fading rims and legs.

Nose

Clean, with medium intensity aromas of black fruit such as blackberry, dark cherries and plum, pungent spice of licorice, maturity notes of savory and tobacco, oak notes of cedar, sweet spice of sage, kernel notes of chocolate. The wine is developing.

Palate
Dry with medium acidity, the wine has medium (+) tannin which is smooth and velvety, with medium alcohol, medium body and medium (+) intensity flavors of black fruit such as blackberry, plum and dark cherries, oak notes of cedar, maturity notes of sweet tobacco, pungent spice of pepper. The wine has a medium (+) finish.

Conclusion
Very good quality high-priced Bordeaux left-bank, with a reasonably concentrated nose showing good complexity, the palate has the elegance and structure for a good wine, with intensity, complexity and length also demonstrating fine winemaking finesse. Still a bit too young in my opinion to express its full potential, the wine is best to further age for another 3-5 years.