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Wine Description
The Story
This second wine from the legendary 1855 Premier Cru Classé was renamed Le Clarence de Haut-Brion starting with the 2007 vintage, a tribute to Clarence Dillon, who acquired the estate in 1935. Earlier vintages - up to the beginning of the 20th century – carry the name Château Bahans Haut-Brion.
Wine Information
The weather and its consequences
One of the characteristics of 2011 was an extremely dry spring. Based on the measured rainfall in April, May and June this was the driest spring since 1949.The experienced wine lover may say that since the vine must suffer, this lack of water was a positive development. Indeed, it would have been had not two days of intense heat (June 26 and 27) arrived at the end of spring.Because of this, the circulation s...
Vintage 2011
The 2011 vintage is not easy to handle.
Smith Haut Lafitte not only makes great white and red wine from Bordeaux in Pessac Léognan, they are also at the cutting edge of technology. They were one of the first Bordeaux wine producers to begin using optical sorting, which came in handy with the difficult 2011 Bordeaux harvest. Fabien Teitgen, long-time general manager, joined us for a long detailed conversation about what happened at Smith Hau...
