Château Haut-Brion

History

The vineyard is attested in Haut-Brion as early as the 1st century AD, and the name of the estate appears for the first time associated with a wine in 1521 — one of the oldest wine mentions in Bordeaux. The Pontac dynasty, from 1533, built the reputation of the cru: Jean de Pontac built the current castle in 1549, and his grandson Arnaud III invented in the seventeenth century a style of wine then unpublished, ancestor of the grands crus de garde, which conquered the court of England — Samuel Pepys boasted of the taste as early as 1663, and Thomas Jefferson visited the estate in 1787. Consecrated Premier Grand Cru Classé in 1855 alongside Margaux, Lafite and Latour, the estate then went through the ordeal of phylloxera before being acquired in 1935 by the New York banker Clarence Dillon, whose descendants have managed the property for four generations.

Château Haut-Brion, Premier Grand Cru Classé in 1855, is the oldest wine estate in the Bordeaux region and the only classified growth outside the Médoc to feature in this prestigious classification. Owned by the Dillon family since 1935, now presided over by Prince Robert of Luxembourg (4th generation), the estate cultivates in Pessac, on the outskirts of Bordeaux, a gravelly terroir whose trace dates back to Roman Antiquity.

The Vineyard

The 51-hectare vineyard stretches over a terrace of gravel — the small quartz pebbles that give the estate its name — resting on a subsoil of clay, sand, limestone and faluns dating from the late Tertiary and Quaternary. These well exposed and well drained rumps carry 48 hectares of red grape varieties (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot) and nearly 3 hectares of white grapes (Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris). The estate also cultivates biodiversity: its 3.5-hectare park is home to more than 40 species of birds and 265 taxa of insects, and the soils are preserved by a winter vegetation cover, limited mechanical work and compost produced on site.

Certifications

The estate's buildings, renovated in 2012, are certified High Environmental Quality (HEQ).