Château Haut Brion 1948

Historically, the estate of Chateau Haut Brion was first mentioned in a document in 1423. Jean de Pontac, the owner of Haut Brion at the time, also built an estate on the land in 1550 and invested generously in progress and viticulture. He was an enterprising man, always on the lookout for innovations for his wine estate Chateau Haut Brion. In addition to this activity, he was also a notary, Conseiller du Roi and President of the Bordeaux Parliament. After his death in 1589, Haut Brion passed to his fourth son, Arnaud II de Pontac. This was followed by several more changes of ownership in the Pontac family until finally, in 1801, the French statesman Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord acquired Haut Brion. Due to his activities as a statesman, however, he was only able to devote limited time to the Haut Brion estate and sold it in 1804. Joseph-Eugène Larrieu subsequently bought Chateau Haut Brion in 1836 and then decided to add the missing third to the Chateau Haut Brion estate in 1841. In 1934, André Gibert wanted to offer the chateau and the entire Haut Brion estate to the city of Bordeaux as a gift, on the condition that viticulture would continue to be practised at Chateau Haut Brion. Tough negotiations and political wrangling ultimately ensured that Haut Brion was bought by C. Douglas Dillon. The Dillons come from an American banking family and from the very beginning tried to push Chateau Haut Brion forward and implement improvement measures. At present, Jean-Philippe Delmas is the third generation to run the Haut Brion estate with flying colours. Haut Brion also owns La Mission Haut Brion and La Tour Haut Brion, both outstanding wines with top marks from wine critics. La Mission Haut Brion in particular is a star in the Graves region.