A Tasting and Dinner with Very Special Guests from Château Haut-Bailly

This past weekend we had the great honor of hosting guests from Bordeaux’s Château Haut-Bailly. Chris Wilmers, one of the owners, and Véronique Sanders, the managing director, joined us for an in-store tasting in Redwood City and a special dinner at Mathilde in San Francisco. Not surprisingly, both sold out quickly, but dozens of lucky people were treated to some wonderful wines.

As many of you know, we’ve been fans of Haut-Bailly for years and have always felt a special connection to the estate and to Véronique. The wines consistently over-perform and offer amazing value for the region. The press has been equally enthused over the years, rewarding the wines with high praise and lots of points, year after year. It was quite a rare treat to be able to taste nine vintages over the course of the weekend.

Chris and Véronique were joined by our owner/Bordeaux-lover Clyde, and Bordeaux experts Ralph and Alex in the Redwood City tasting room, serving up pours of the 1998, 1999, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2016 and La Parde de Haut-Bailly 2016. Over the last 40 years, Ralph has developed his own fan base! The 40 lucky customers were able to experience a whole lot of Bordeaux knowledge and passion in one room during the afternoon tasting lineup. These tastings are always a great way to have a conversation and learn from the hosts and guests.

Dinner at Mathilde is always wonderful, but even better with the ever-charming Véronique and absolutely delightful Chris there to discuss the wines, the estate, and, as a bonus, Chris’s main area of expertise… mountain lions! We started off with bubbles of course: the Launois Reserve kicked off the evening in style. We then moved on to a four-course, eight-vintage dinner, enjoying Haut-Bailly from 1997, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2016, plus the La Parde de Haut-Bailly from 2016. What a great lineup! It was fantastic to listen to the many opinions on which was the wine of the evening. With equal passion many guests defended quite a number of vintages as their favorite—it was a hard choice but the 5.0 liter bottle of the 1997 was hard to resist; of course the 2000 and 2009 were showing beautifully too; and the 2010... well, I think you get the picture.