Beschreibung:

CHÂTEAUX HAUT BRION AND LA MISSION HAUT BRION It has been seven decades since the American banker Clarence Dillon purchased Château Haut Brion and twenty two years since his granddaughter Joan Dillon and her husband the Duc de Mouchy took the dramatic step of arranging the purchase of Haut Brion's illustrious neighbor, Château La Mission Haut Brion, from the Woltner family. Jean Delmas, the recently retired Technical Director, had intimate knowledge of all of the vintages being offered below. He started out working beside his father and was well positioned to take over the reigns in his first year as régisseur (General Manager) in 1961. Haut Brion, meaning "high mound of grave," enjoys the oldest reputation in print of any wine in Bordeaux. Its most prominent early owner was Jean de Pontac (1488-1589), who built the Château, became the richest man in Bordeaux, and lived an extradordinary 101 years. The name of the Pontac family was often attached to the wine, and in 1666 Jean's great-great grandson, Francoise-Auguste, opened a tavern in London called "The Sign of Pontac's Head," where "Pontac" was sold for three times the price of any other wine. The fashionable tavern lasted for over a century. The wine of Haut Brion was first sold at Christie's under the name of "Pontac" on April 6, 1778, consigned from the cellars of the Marquis de Noailles. Nine years later the American Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson travelled to Bordeaux and as history has recorded was unsuccessful in his attempt to purchase a barrique of the 1784 vintage. He had to settle for two cases of fifty bottles each and was known to enjoy and promote the wines of Haut Brion to his friends and colleagues back in a nascent America. Although fine wines were made in the 1920s the estate's renaissance is widely recognized to begin with the 1945 vintage, crafted by the senior Dillon-Delmas team. Clarence Dillon's granddaughter, Joan, began representing the property on behalf of the family when she moved to France in 1955. She became President of Domaine Clarence Dillon in 1974. After the death of her first husband, Prince Charles of Luxemburg, Princesse Joan married Philippe de Noailles, Duc de Mouchy, and in 1978 asked him to become an active Director of the company. Since then, the Duc and Duchesse de Mouchy have shared the most important decisions regarding the management of the Domaine. The seeds of La Mission were sown in 1540 when Louis de Roustain sold a parcel of land entitled Arrejedhuys to Bordeaux négociant Arnaut de Lestonnac who had recognized the potential of the land for vine growing. He set about planting rows of vines and married Marie de Pontac, the sister of Jean de Pontac who owned Haut-Brion. The La Mission prefix derives from its ownership by Lazarist friars during the 17th and 18th centuries, who produced the wine. In 1919 the Woltner Family, successful wine merchants in Bordeaux and Paris, purchased the property for the handsome some of 250,000 FF. Soon after the Woltners took over the operating lease of its small neighbor, La Tour Haut Brion, whose owner bequeathed it, along with her dogs, to the Woltners in 1934. The purchase of La Mission Haut Brion in 1983 by the Dillons united all three properties under one ownership. Haut Brion, the wine, has an illustrious reputation for its richness and suaveté and is generally comprised of 55 Cabernet Sauvignon, 25 Merlot and 20 Cabernet Franc. Haut Brion is not just geographically distant from its First Growth peers, for it is widely recognized as singular in style and grace. La Mission has quite a different personality, for its reputation is built upon wines of power and grip, a masculine style to be certain. Its cepage is more on the order of 48 Cabernet Sauvignon, 45 Merlot and 7 Cabernet Franc. Château Haut-Brion--Vintage 1952 Pessac (Graves), 1er cru classé Level: 4cm; bin soiled label "This is definitely one of the best surviving. Seven notes in the 1960s and 1970s, the earlier ones