Château Haut-Brion
Pessac-Léognan
Pessac-Léognan
Appellation:
Classification:
First Growth — Premier Cru Classe
Appellation:
Pessac-Léognan
Production:
12,000- 15,000 cases
Clarence Dillon purchased Chateau Haut-Brion in 1935, and restored it to its former glory. The wines are extraordinary, bold and courageous and renowned as some of the most legendary wines of the world. This is currently the most southernly positioned wine of all the first growths (Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Mouton Rothschild & Margaux), situated in the Graves region, located in the town of Pessac, just a few kilometres from Bordeaux.
Thomas Jefferson gave his first impressions of the vineyard on 25 May 1787: ‘The soil of Haut-Brion, which i examined in great detail, is made up of sand, in which there is near as much round gravel or small stone and a very little loam.’ The next day, he wrote to his brother-in-law Francis Eppes: ‘I cannot deny myself the pleasure asking you to invest a parcel of wine i have been choosing for myself. I do it the rather as it will furnish you a specimen of what is the very best Bordeaux wine. It is of the vineyard of Obrion, one of the four established as the very bestand it is of the vintage 1784. Six dozen bottles of it will be packed separately and addressed to you.’
‘….Over the millennia, many came to examine and admire this terroir. Among them were such luminaries as John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. Their conundrum: How could a soil so poor produce such magnificent wines?….’