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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
Weather conditions 2002
Sum of temperatures : 3228 °C
Rain : 336 mm
Days where temperature above 30 °C : 14
Harvest : from 19/09/2002 to 08/10/2002
Current vintage notes
The year was very dry, but the low rainfall was well spread out and ensured that
the vines received the regular amounts of water they needed. A slightly cool
summer delayed ripening, but conditions became ideal for harvesting from the 9th
of September onward: relatively hot, sunny days, and an unusual north-easterly
wind for the season. The grapes for the white wine, followed by the red, reached
the vat room in perfect condition, without being touched by a single drop of rain.
Vintage 2002
BORDEAUX: 2002 A wonderful vintage of pure, rich, elegant reds and soft, rounded whites.
An early start to flowering was followed by a variable summer with a bit of everything, from cold to hot to hot and back again. A long period of dry weather was beginning to be a problem when the rain of early September arrived, replenishing the vines. When the wind turned to the north, the grapes were dried and the harvest could begin on September 16 under a clear blue sky. 2002 is rightly a popular vintage among Burgundy aficionados. What's not to love about the pure fine fruits of the forest and the strawberry aromas in the best red wines and the fresh mineral tones of great whites? Wines to enjoy or keep for another ten years or more.
