Château Haut-Brion

Château Haut-Brion () is a French wine, rated a ''Premier Grand Cru Classé'' ( First Great Growth), produced in Pessac just outside the city of Bordeaux. It differs from the other wines on the list in its geographic location in the north of the wine-growing region of Graves. Of the five first growths, it is the only wine with the Pessac-Léognan appellation and is in some sense the ancestor of a classification that remains the benchmark to this day.

In addition to the ''grand vin'' ( LWIN 1011247), Haut-Brion produces a red second wine. Formerly named Château Bahans Haut-Brion, beginning with the 2007 vintage, it was renamed Le Clarence de Haut Brion ( LWIN 1008153). The vineyard also produces a dry white wine named Château Haut-Brion Blanc ( LWIN 1017092), with a limited release of the second dry white wine, Les Plantiers du Haut-Brion, renamed La Clarté de Haut-Brion for the 2008 vintage.

History

Although grapes are thought to have been grown on the property since Roman times, the earliest document indicating cultivation of a parcel of land dates from 1423. The property was bought by Jean de Ségur in 1509, and in 1525 was owned by Admiral Philippe de Chabot.

The estate Château Haut-Brion dates back to April 1525 when Jean de Pontac married Jeanne de Bellon, the daughter of the mayor of Libourne and ''seigneur'' of Hault-Brion, who brought the land in her dowry. In 1533 bought the title to the domain of Haut-Brion, while construction of the château was begun in 1549.

1649, Lord Arnaud III de Pontac became owner of Haut-Brion, and the wine's growing popularity began in earnest. The first records of Haut-Brion wine found in the wine cellar ledger of the English King Charles II in 1660. During the years 1660 and 1661, 169 bottles of the "wine of Hobriono" were served at the king's court. Charles Ludington states: "The re-establishment of a royal court and of court culture generally required an increase in luxury goods. This demand inspired Pontac to launch the prototype of top-growth claret in London. The wine was called Haut-Brion, after the name of the estate from which it came."

Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary, having tasted the wine at Royal Oak Tavern on April 10, 1663, to have "drank a sort of French wine called Ho Bryen that hath a good and most particular taste I never met with".winepros.com.au. Pepys provided what Prof. Ludington called "the first tasting note of Haut-Brion".

Therefore both Charles II's cellar book and Pepys' note "provide the first mention in any language of estate-named claret and are among the many proofs that Haut-Brion was created specifically for the English market." Pontac went even further in developing the renown of his wine: "By improving and "branding" a product, ..he created and named a wine that came from a small, circumscribed area of land for the purpose of enhancing its value in the minds and on the palates of discerning English customers."

The original diary of Pepys is held in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge while the 1660 Cellar Book of King Charles II is held by the British National Archives. In 1927, writer Dorothy L. Sayers, in her novel "Unnatural Death", had detective Lord Peter Wimsey joke about Pepys Anglicizing the wine's name (" . . . a bottle of what Pepys calls Ho Bryon"). In April 2013, the Magdalene College, Cambridge, displayed the Pepys Diary opened at the page of the Haut-Brion mention for the 350th Anniversary of this historical mention. Dr Jane Hughes lectured on Pepys and wine before the gala dinner hosted by the Cambridge University Wine Society and featuring tributes to Pepys. Prince Robert of Luxembourg then challenged wine historians and amateurs to find a new reference to Haut-Brion in history prior to 1660.

In 1666, after "The Great Fire", the son François-Auguste, opened a tavern in London called "L'Enseigne de Pontac", or the "Sign of Pontac's Head", which was according to André Simon, London's first fashionable eating-house. Jonathan Swift "found the wine dear at seven shillings a flagon".

By the end of the 17th century the estate amounted to of which some were under vine. The wine was often sold under the name Pontac, though since the Pontac family owned numerous wine estates that could use the name, it is often impossible to tell when a wine came from Haut-Brion. Sometimes also spelled Pontack, another Pontac estate at Blanquefort which produced white wine would also often go by this name.

English philosopher John Locke, visiting Bordeaux in 1677, spoke of Haut-Brion, "...The wine of Pontac, so revered in England, is made on a little rise of ground, lieing ^{ic/sup> open most to the west. It is noe thing but pure white sand, mixed with a little gravel. One would imagin it scarce fit to beare anything.." On the cause of its increasing costliness, he stated, "thanks to the rich English who sent orders that it was to be got for them at any price". The German philosopher Hegel was also enchanted with the wine of Pontac, though it is unknown if his orders were for other de Pontac wines of Saint-Estèphe.}

With the death of François-Auguste de Pontac, François-Joseph de Fumel, a nephew by marriage, inherited two-thirds of Haut-Brion with a third coming to Louis-Arnaud Le Comte, Lord Captal of Latresne. The de Fumel family also at one point owned Château Margaux.

In 1787, Thomas Jefferson, then American minister to France, came to Bordeaux. On May 25 he visited to Haut-Brion, describing the ''terroir'', "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 like the soils of the Médoc". His notes placed Haut-Brion among the four estates of first quality, with the entry, "3. Haut-Brion, two-thirds of which belong to the Count de Fumel who sold the harvest to a merchant called Barton. The other third belongs to the Count of Toulouse; in all, the château produces 75 barrels." Haut-Brion became the first recorded first growth wine to be imported to the United States, when Jefferson purchased six cases during the travels and had them sent back to his estate in Virginia., as stated in his letter to his brother-in-law Francis Eppes on May 26, 1787: "(...) I cannot deny myself the pleasure of asking you to participate of a parcel of wine I have been chusing for myself. I do it the rather as it will furnish you a specimen of what is the very best Bourdeaux wine. It is of the vineyard of Obrion, one of the four established as the very best, and it is of the vintage of 1784 (...)."

As a consequence of the French Revolution, in July 1794 Joseph de Fumel was guillotined, and his holdings were divided. Posthumously, de Fumel's nephews obtained a pardon for him as well as the restitution of the confiscated property, but they left France. In 1801, they sold Haut-Brion to Talleyrand, Prince of Benevento, owner of Haut-Brion for three years.

A less prosperous period followed between 1804 and 1836 under successive ownership of various businessmen, until Joseph-Eugène Larrieu bought Haut-Brion when it was sold by auction. In 1841, by buying the Chai-Neuf building from the Marquis de Catellan, he brought the estate back to the former size of the estate up until the death of François-Auguste de Pontac in 1694. Larrieu's family owned Haut-Brion until 1923.

In the classifications of 1855 ahead of the International Exhibition in Paris, Château Haut-Brion was classified ''Premier Grand Cru'', as the only estate from Graves among the three established First Growths of the Médoc. The prices of Haut-Brion in the 19th century were consistently higher than those of any other Bordeaux wine. This trend has continued into the present day, with the price of the estate's ''grand vin'' averaging $571.

Modern history

After a series of unsuccessful owners during difficult times, the American banker Clarence Dillon bought Château Haut-Brion on May 13, 1935 for ₣2,300,000. Several unverified anecdotes surround the acquisition, as Dillon was believed to also consider buying châteaux Cheval Blanc, Ausone or a majority share in Margaux

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