New Cellars and Old Friends at Haut-Bailly
“Haut-Bailly can make the softest and most invitingly charming wines among the Graves Classed growths. The 31ha (77 acres) of vines are on gravelly soil with rather more sand than usual, just to the east of the village of Leognan, and this contributes to Haut-Bailly becoming agreeably ready to drink very early. However the wines do age well and what is ready to drink at ten years old often seems magically unchanged at 20 years.“
- Oz Clarke, Bordeaux
Château Haut-Bailly is located in the heart of the Graves appellation on one of the highest hills on the Left Bank, boasting some parcels with vines 100-120 years old (they’re at number 4 on the map to the left, also from Oz Clarke’s Bordeaux book). It’s an estate that occupies a special place in K&L’s heart. In addition to making stunningly elegant wines, CEO Veronique Sanders is a dear friend of our co-owner Clyde Beffa. To celebrate their long friendship and our first visit since the pandemic, Clyde brought a bottle of 1952 Haut-Bailly to dinner. And let me tell you, Oz Clarke was right: Haut Bailly ages with such grace that even a 70-year-old bottle was fresh and silky and alive. We tasted it alongside a 2010 and a 1982, and each was unique and full of energy. It was particularly special to try the brand new baby wine from the 2020 vintage on the same evening as wines that have been in the cellar for decades.
When I tasted the 2020, I remarked to Veronique about how precise and fine the tannins are in this wine, as in many of the wines we’d tasted from 2020, and I asked her what it was about this vintage that helped the tannins express such elegance. She said, “We’ve always made wine this way. This is the Haut-Bailly style.” Even over the years when the ethos in Bordeaux was bigger is better, Haut-Bailly stuck to is roots.
And Veronique should know—her family has been involved in Haut-Bailly since 1955. She’s the fourth generation. Her father sold the estate to the Wilmers family in the 1990s, but Veronique stayed on, and is today one of only a handful of women in charge of an estate in Bordeaux. She’s active in the community, as a member of many organizations and a former president of the Union des Crus Classés de Graves. She is also married to Alexander Van Beek, general manager of Château Giscours (plus Tuscany’s Caiarossa)—a BDX power couple if ever there was one.
Veronique and Chris Wilmers worked with architect Daniel Romeo to design and built a brand new facility, and it is as thoughtful about its design as it is beautiful. Veronique said she didn’t want to design a winery of today, but a winery of tomorrow, so they imagined every scenario they might encounter and worked to make the technology ever more efficient. Chris Wilmers is a professor of Ecology at UC Santa Cruz, and there’s clearly a detailed attention to the flora and to the sustainability of the facility.
After the tour, we tasted the new vintage. Veronique called it an “Atlantic vintage,” meaning it tastes like old school Bordeaux, with power, finesse, freshness, and purity of fruit and aromatics.
2020 Haut-Bailly. It’s a big and powerful wine. Veronique likened it to 2010, but as the tannins are more precise and exquisitely elegant. Suckling gave it a potential 100 points, and I can see why! Succulent clove and baking spice, deep black chery fruit, graphite, cedar, mint, and a glorious texture. The blend this year is 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot.
2020 Haut-Bailly II—This wine is lively and vibrant, with sweet tobacco and red fruit on the palate. Lots of lifted fruit and a long, intense finish. Delicious and drinking well right off the bat.
2020 Giscours—A concentrated and tightly wound wine, that clearly has the stuffing to unfurl amazing complexity over time. Red fruit, earth, licorice, lavender on the nose lead to a sweet, fruity palate and very fine tannins. Will age well, maintaining a ton of fruit. 44% Merlot, 56% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Of course, the best part of the evening was dinner, where even more wonderful wines were poured, and I enjoyed everyone’s company very much. Visiting Bordeaux with Clyde is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many reasons, but meeting all of his amazing friends—the people behind the wines—was the most special. A big thank you to Veronique, Alexander, Cyprien, and Daina for a spectacular visit.
