Haut-Brion’s history has been marked by many famous men: Count Joseph de Fumel (Field Marshal, Governor of the Province of Guyenne, and Mayor of Bordeaux), Talleyrand (Foreign Minister of Napoleon I, Emperor of France) and, more recently, C. Douglas Dillon (American ambassador to France and US Secretary of the Treasury during the Kennedy administration).
In 1961, Haut-Brion was the first of the great growths to use stainless steel fermentation vats, and continues to be in the forefront of innovation thanks to the meticulous selection of the ideal clones for each grape variety used at the estate.
Classified a First Growth in 1855, Haut-Brion has done everything possible ever since then to maintain its standing.
TERROIR
Château Haut-Brion’s vineyard is located in the commune of Pessac, just a few miles southwest of Bordeaux’s city center.
It was upon a terrace overlooked by two small hills and flanked by two streams, that approximately 2000 years ago, Romans came and discovered the virtues of these tiny quartz pebbles called “graves” (gravel). During Gallo-Roman times, the concept of terroir was already beginning to emerge. It was subsequently validated, in Burdigala (Bordeaux), by the identification of this very terrace with the toponym of “Haut-Brion”, used both in medieval manuscripts and on ancient maps.
The nature of the gravel at Château Haut-Brion, consisting of small stones of various types of quartz, is a key element contributing to the particularly valuable wine-growing potential of the soil.
The gravelly soils lie upon a unique subsoil of clay, sand, limestone and shelly sand formed at the end of the Tertiary era, then during the Quaternary era, throughout the ice age.
VITICULTURE
Sustainable farming. Protection of the environment is age-old, linked to safeguarding the terroir, passed down from one generation to the next. This involves showing careful consideration for the soils and their characteristics, limiting the number of interventions and using no insecticides.
WINEMAKING
Manual harvest. Fermentation: Temperature controlled in vats. The best wines are selected and placed in barrels for 18 to 20 months. Maturation is also the art of integrating the barrels’ woods, to ensure that the new barrels’ woodiness never overwhelms the wine. Every year the percentage of new barrels is reviewed, according to the vintage’s characteristics and the wine’s profile. The wine is then bottled to continue the slow ageing process.The purplish-red color is the first sign of this wine’s concentration.
When swirled in the glass, it displays a deep, warm, very ripe bouquet.
2009 Château Haut-Brion is full of flavour from beginning to end.
It is so rich and concentrated that we are tempted to use the word “thick”.
However, this thickness is in no way synonymous with heaviness thanks to a counterbalancing freshness.
2009 Château Haut-Brion is reminiscent of 2005 in terms of power, but is even more concentrated.
It also has the ripeness and mouthfeel of 1990 and 1989.
To summarize, 2009 Château Haut-Brion can be said to be a cross between 2005 and 1989.
We are now able to say that it is the most beautiful wine the estate has ever produced.
What a blockbuster effort! Atypically powerful, one day, the 2009 Haut-Brion may be considered to be the 21st century version of the 1959. It is an extraordinarily complex, concentrated effort made from a blend of 46% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Cabernet Franc with the highest alcohol ever achieved at this estate, 14.3%. Even richer than the perfect 1989, with similar technical numbers although slightly higher extract and alcohol, it offers up a sensational perfume of subtle burning embers, unsmoked cigar tobacco, charcoal, black raspberries, wet gravel, plums, figs and blueberries. There is so much going on in the aromatics that one almost hesitates to stop smelling it. However, when it hits the palate, it is hardly a letdown. This unctuously textured, full-bodied 2009 possesses low acidity along with stunning extract and remarkable clarity for a wine with a pH close to 4.0. The good news is that there are 10,500 cases of the 2009, one of the most compelling examples of Haut-Brion ever made. It requires a decade of cellaring and should last a half century or more. Readers who have loved the complexity of Haut-Brion should be prepared for a bigger, richer, more massive wine, but one that does not lose any of its prodigious aromatic attractions.
Best served with rich and heavy steaks, grilled and roast lamb, aged Parmesan.
*Please note the image is of a representative bottle. For pictures of the actual bottle please contact us.