Château Haut-Brion is the least well known of Bordeaux's first growths and is the only château outside of the Haut-Médoc to be awarded growth status in the Bordeaux classification of 1855. Haut-Brion rarely achieves a higher price than its contemporaries, and its intensely aromatic and concentrated wines are consistently viewed as some of the very best in the entire Bordeaux region.
Haut-Brion is the benchmark estate of the Péssac-Leognan (Graves' premiere sub-appellation), and is also a rarity amongst many Bordeaux growths in that it produces excellent red (Haut-Brion) and white (Haut-Brion Blanc) wine from 51 hectares hemmed in by the bustling, commercial suburb of Pessac.
Haut-Brion's red has a savoury richness and complexity on the palate that sets it above other Péssac reds, with greater intensity and depth of flavour than its neighbours. White Haut-Brion Blanc is right at the top of the white wine Bordeaux ladder every year.
It is believed that ‘Ho Bryan’ first came to public notice in the writings of Samuel Pepys in 1663 when he wrote that he “drank a sort of French wine called Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste that I never met with.” The fame of Haut-Brion spread throughout Europe by the end of the 17th century.
American banker Clarence Dillon bought Haut-Brion in 1935, and its style has changed over the years of the Dillon family ownership. Following his death in 1979, Clarence’s granddaughter, the Duchesse de Mouchy, has been head of the company, and she wisely gave carte blanche authority and total responsibility for running the estate to the much-respected winemaker Jean Delmas. In 2003 Jean retired and proudly passed his mantle to son Jean-Philippe, one of France's truly gifted winemakers. |
