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Wine Description
The Story
There are few places where terroir truly affects production but Château Haut-Bailly is definitely one of those. Château Haut-Bailly has a distinctive style that harmoniously combines classicism with modernity, elegance, finesse and softness with structure. The silky smoothness of the tannins echoes the elegant yet complex aromas.
Château Haut-Bailly has great ageing potential and consistently wins praise from experts who agree that it offers complex pleasure and a richness that is neither aggressive nor ostentatious. These are natural qualities which Haut-Bailly is determined to keep.
Each year the team at Château Haut-Bailly works hard at developing the quality of the wines without interfering with nature. Since 1998, thanks to even more stringent selection controls, the wine has gained a greater depth and precision.
Wine Information
Thanks to careful winemaking and gentle extraction, wines of great balance and structure, with an excellent polyphenol content, were produced. At the end of malolactic fermentation, the wines were very smooth and round. The deeply-coloured, concentrated, and powerful Cabernet Sauvignon wines constitute the backbone of this year’s wine. Together with the softness of the Merlots, they formed a very balanced and elegant blend.
Flowering took place more than three weeks earlier than usual thanks to an early spring and a very warm April. However, more than average rainfall in May caused a high risk of mildew. This called for constant attention and quick reactions from the vineyard workers. Furthermore, cool overcast weather during the summer slowed down grape growth and caused the vines to lose their initial advance. Fortunately, though, the weather throughout September and October was ideal, with beautiful sunny days and cool nights. The harvest began on September 21 with the picking of a plot of young vines. This was followed by the magnificent Merlot grapes between September 27 and October 2. Our best Cabernet Sauvignon waited until the second week of October before they reached optimum maturity. Thanks to a series of anticyclones in late summer, the grapes had a total of 130 days to ripen after flowering instead of the usual 100. This long growing season compensated for an unusually chilly August.