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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.
Vintage 1999
Bordeaux 1999/ The last year of the millennium was strange. The entire Bordeaux region had very good water reserves after a wet winter. Then, budburst in May under warm temperatures indicated a huge harvest. The weather became even warmer towards summer with some humidity. After early flowering at the end of May, storms made it difficult to pick berries. Then the heat wave followed with humidity and mildew problems in August. The weather changed to ideally dry and sunny well before harvest. Unfortunately, the harvest was largely spoiled by violent autumn storms with hail destroying the harvest of many vineyards on the Right Bank. The quality of the grapes in all regions remains at the same level despite the storms.
This vintage offered more than a hundred wines which are very pleasant at the moment. On the other hand, the fluctuation in quality between the wines was surprising.