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Wine Description
The Story
Haut-Brion Blanc is as renowned as it is scarce, with only about 8,000 bottles available per vintage for a very demanding market. It is often regarded as the greatest white of Bordeaux, although Haut-Brion Blanc’s sibling, Laville Haut-Brion, sometimes equals and occasionally surpasses it. The white vineyards at Haut-Brion are planted to 63 percent Sémillon and 37 percent Sauvignon Blanc, a weighting that gives this wine its particularly plush combination of Sémillon-driven body and Sauvignon-influenced scent of musk. Haut-Brion Blanc ages beautifully.
White Bordeaux does not come much more layered and powerful than this. Strong oak roasted nut notes are evident on the nose but dissipate quickly on the palate. Taut yet shapely refreshing but rich. A large framed wine that manages to find harmony. Alongside exotic touches of stone fruit there are some wonderfully energising fruit characteristics of crystallised lemon rind, grapefruit and lime. Long, complex and very intense without being too weighty.
Wine Information
Château Haut-brion's tasting notes / This wine has everything: balance, freshness, fatness, complexity, minerality and intensity. We are approaching perfection. Nothing dominates Everything is in harmony (alcohol 13°9 and pH 3.2). A very subtle color combines a tinge of yellow with nuances of green. A strong nose dominates with whiffs of quince and locust flowers along with a trace of elegant woodiness. From the very beginning this wine’s dimension is impressive. The mouth is full and unctuous. The finale is everlasting. It is superb.
Weather conditions
Temperature sum : 3 337°C.
Rainfall : 409 mm
Number of days over 30°C : 9
Harvesting began : August 28th – October 5th.
Current vintage notes
Both winter and spring this year were characterized by mild and humid conditions, particularly conducive to the spread of certain vine ailments. Never have the tractors worked more diligently to protect the vines and their fruit. Never has such a great deal of manual labour been necessary to carry out canopy management tasks not feasible using machines when only the best possible results will do: early removal of leaves from late June on the east (morning sun) side, carefully executed thinning of laterals and shoots to lighten the burden on the vine, but also to distribute the remaining clusters for better aeration, and a later, meticulous removal of further leaves so as not to damage the berries on the west (afternoon sun) side.
Fair weather during the month of September permitted an unhurried harvest season, involving the participation of no fewer than 200 people to accomplish the crucial and exacting sorting process.
The 2007 vintage will therefore serve as a benchmark to assess progress made in Bordeaux winegrowing practices.