CHÂTEAU HAUT BRION BLANC

2016 Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan

Grapes Sémillon, Sauv Blanc
Colour White
Origin France, Bordeaux
Village Pessac-Léognan
Classification Cru Classé

70.5% Sauvignon Blanc, 29.5% Semillon. Richer yet than the Mission Blanc, this seems to have a bit of a hole in the middle. Finding this relatively less fun today. Drinking range: 2019 - 2025 Rating: 92-94 L&S (Apr 2017)


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The white of the vintage is the 2016 Haut Brion Blanc, a Sauvignon-dominated blend that includes just under 30% Sémillon. Amazingly deep and rich, yet vibrant at the same time, it offers an exotic, liquid rock-like minerality as well as notes of citrus zest, crushed limes, and white flowers. It’s unquestionably one of the most concentrated, powerful wines out there, yet it still just glides across the palate with flawless integration of its fruit and acidity. It needs short-term cellaring and will keep for 20-30 years if you’re so inclined. Drinking range: 2022 - 2052 Rating: 99 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Feb 2019)

The Haut Brion 2016 Blanc is a blend of 70.5% Sauvignon Blanc and 29.5% Sémillon picked from 1-13 September. I found a little more complexity and mineralité here compared to the La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc this year, scents of chalk and lime flower complementing the citrus fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp tannin, notes of lime cordial, orange zest and grapefruit, almost flinty towards the finish that lingers long in the mouth with great vigor from start to finish. This is excellent, but not the best Haut Brion Blanc that I have tasted in recent years. Drinking range: 2020 - 2045 Rating: 92-94 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2017)

Layered with a round and rich texture and body. Full and flavorful. Lots of dried-apple and pineapple character. Very long finish. Exotic and ripe. We will see which is better. Rating: 96-97 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2017)

Château Haut Brion

1855 classification - Premier Grand Cru Classé Château Haut Brion is famously the only estate in Graves to have featured in the 1855 classification reflecting a long established reputation, even if, at the time, the crown was beginning to slip. During the 16th Century, Haut-Brion was briefly owned by Jean de Ségur of the Ségur family who at various times owned both Lafite and Latour. Jean de Pontac inherited Haut Brion as a wedding dowry in 1525 and, apart from a brief period during the French Revolution, his descendents owned the estate until 1801. The Pontacs were an interesting lot, including in their number a very pious Bishop, a politician, and François-Auguste Pontac who started a London inn called l'Enseigne de Pontac where Samuel Pepys enjoyed "a sort of French wine called Ho Bryan", finding it "hath a good and most particular taste". Jonathon Swift, however, thought the wine "dear at seven shillings a flagon" - 35p a bottle, if only! Haut Brion was the first Bordeaux wine known to have been imported into the USA when Thomas Jefferson had six cases shipped home to Virginia. Eventually, in the earlier years of the 19th Century, Haut Brion found its way into the hands of the Larrieu family. Preceding reputation was enough to get Haut Brion classified as a Premier Grand Cru Classé in 1855, and a string of copy cat estates appended "Haut Brion" to their names (a source of some litigation in the 1920's) but in reality the 19th and early 20th Centuries were not great times for the wines of Haut Brion. When the bank seized the assets of Milleret Larrieu after WWI, the estate fell into the hands of the Société des Glacières under who's unenlightened guidance much of the gardens were sold off the make way for expanding city of Bordeaux. They then offered Château Haut Brion to the City of Bordeaux, who turned it down, allowing American financier Clarence Dillon to realise his dream of owning a Bordeaux château, buying the estate in 1935. His descendents own Haut Brion to this day. The gravel soils of Haut Brion are planted with 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc for reds, and a more or less 50/50 split of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon for the whites. There are around 45ha under vine. Haut Brion were one of the first estates to ferment in stainless steel. After fermentation, red wines spend up to two years in oak, previoulsy 100% new for the grand vin but, now, more like 35%. The second wine of the estate was known for many years as Bahans Haut Brion, but was renamed recently as Le Clarence de Haut Brion in honour of Clarence Dillon.

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