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At one of Pauillac’s highest spots, with plots next to Latour (overlooking the Gironde) and to Pichon-Baron (on the Bages plateau), Haut-Bages Liberal has always enjoyed great terroir. But even that is not enough to explain the quality of recent vintages here. Jane Anson calls owner Claire Villars ‘one of the most exciting winemakers in Bordeaux’, and the work that Claire has been doing here is remarkable. She has completely transitioned the estate to biodynamic viticulture.
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There are a few things that make Haut-Bailly special. There`s the fact that nearly 15% of the vines are still prephylloxera, that it is one of the few Pessac-Leognan properties not to make white wine, that it has soil that actually contributes to that rare thing in Bordeaux - real sense of terroir. That soil is sandy seabed stuffed with shellfish fossils. As a property it is less than 150 years old and like many Bordeaux estates has seen its fair share of ups, downs and idiosyncratic owners.
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In 1942, the Batailley estate was divided into two, so that two brothers could each have their own part. One half continued under the name Batailley, and the other (smaller) part was re-christened Haut-Batailley. Like Batailley itself, Haut-Batailley is a fifth growth under the terms of the 1855 classification, as a continuation of an 1855 classified estate. For decades, it was ably managed (but not owned) by Francois-Xavier Borie (who owns Grand-Puy-Lacoste), and in 2006 he began a huge renovation of the wine-making facilities and cellars.
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This property dates back to the fifteenth century, though the earliest mention in English is the celebrated entry in Pepys` diary in 1663 to Chateau Haut-Brion`s wine bar in the City of London. It is now the only Bordeaux chateau to be owned by Euro-aristos, with the holding company being controlled by Prince Robert of Luxembourg, or Bobby deluxe as he`s known in the trade. Haut-Brion is the only Pessac/Graves chateau to be mentioned in the 1855 Medoc classification as well as its local one.
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La Conseillante is at the cusp of the very top tier of the Pomerol appellation. It ought to be, given its neighbours; L’Evangile to the east, Petrus to the north, Vieux Chateau Certan to the north-west and Cheval Blanc across the road. The name comes from one Madame Catherine Conseillan, who in the early eighteenth century acquired vineyards with the current boundaries from an earlier estate being broken up. -
Another wine that starts lean and adds plumpness, this is an estate that has returned to sparkling form after a period in the doldrums. In fact it is only 35 years since the whole estate and vineyards had to be reinstated from scratch; the vines have an average age of 25 years. Merlot is 80% and Cabernet Franc 15%, as befits a property adjacent to Cheval-Blanc. Michel Rolland is the consulting oenologist but at this property the trademark overripe lushness is avoided./CW
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In the 1855 classification of the Medoc, one wine that was not from the Medoc but rather Pessac was also admitted; Haut -Brion. Its Pessac neighbour La Mission Haut-Brion was not granted a similar special admission. Yet if any wine from Pessac also deserves first growth status, it is La Mission Haut-Brion.
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It’s easy to get excited about the classified stars in the Bordeaux firmament but these aren’t the wines we drink on a weekly basis. Some of them are so far out of reach they are wines we can only dream of drinking.
Tour de By is the antidote to that. Situated pretty much on the banks of the Gironde on a high gravel outcrop, north of St-Estephe, planted to 70% Cabernet, 25% Merlot & 5% Petit Verdot. Well drained very poor soil gives it ideal growing conditions and improvements in vineyard practice over the past few years have put the final touches to what is a very well managed property. -
