News
2020 Vintage
A rainy winter and springtime required swift responsiveness from the teams to go in to do their work in the vineyard at just the right moment. Subsequently, a drought took hold from the beginning of the summer and then, on the contrary, it was necessary to limit work in the vineyard as much as possible, so as to protect the vines from the sun. Two months without rain, interspersed by peaks of very high temperatures slowed down the vine’s growth somewhat and curbed its advance, even though ripeness was very early.
"2020 is a unique vintage in every way. We had to be patient to wait for the ripeness we hoped for, but above all, 2020 will be remembered as a vintage with a very significant human factor. All these conditions make 2020 a remarkable vintage; concentrated wines, sustained by astonishing freshness enable La Mission Haut-Brion 2020 to be a huge success,
in red as well as in white." Jean-Philippe Delmas
Harvests
The harvests for white grapes began on 19th August, with the sun shining brightly. Given the heat, the main concern was to protect the grapes’ aromas: picking was done only in the mornings and refrigerated transport carried the grapes to the vat house.
At the end of the month of August, harvests of white grapes were completed. A week later, they began for red grapes. This short interlude was necessary and beneficial to attain the perfect aromatic balance and ripeness of the red grapes. When picking them, the challenge was to work in the shade as much as possible, not only to protect the grapes, but the harvesters too. All these precautions and the teams’ patience paid off: on arrival at the vat house, few berries were discarded during sorting by density testing; this was a sign of consistent ripeness and a very healthy, promising crop. When fermentation was only just finished, the juices clearly showed the ripeness already observed in the vineyard.
A CUT ABOVE - Château La Mission Haut-Brion launches the ultimate wine box at Harrods
Harrods has teamed up with one of Bordeaux’s most renowned châteaux to create the limited edition La Mission Haut-Brion “A Cut Above” for the ultimate wine dinner. Each of these six handcrafted cases (£5,000, available from Friday 25 November) comprises four of the estate’s most celebrated vintages – reds from 1982, 1989 and 2000, and a white from 2009 – as well as a set of 12 knives that sport handles made from the château’s own barrel staves: six from a red wine barrel and six from a white one.
The cases were designed and created by Technew, a Swiss workshop better known for producing boxes to house fine jewellery and watches, and the knives are the work of Artisan Coutelier, a French knifemaker that handcrafts fine cutlery. Each case comes with a signed letter from Prince Robert of Luxembourg, president and CEO of La Mission Haut-Brion’s owner Domaine Clarence Dillon – what it says therein, only your dinner guests will ever know.
The launch of La Mission Haut-Brion “A Cut Above” follows the announcement that Harrods will be relocating its prestigious wine store from its home in the 650sq m basement to make way for a 250-seat restaurant. Harrods reassures that the Wine Room will continue in another form, although its new location in the building has yet to be revealed.
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