Profile: The fifth first growth

Today, it is the least well known of Bordeaux’s premier crus, but its status belies an illustrious past that Domaine Clarence Dillon’s Prince Robert of Luxembourg would rather like to resurrect, but not at the expense of quality.

Listing Bordeaux’s first growths is often like trying to name all of the Magnificent Seven. There’s always one missing.

There was Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, the young hotheaded wannabe and then, the last one.

Admittedly there are only five first growths and they are usually rattled off in quick succession, but there’s always one named last.

Haut-Brion has slipped somewhat in the public’s awareness. Lafite, Latour, Margaux and Mouton Rothschild are wines drunk by millionaires, known the world over for being the epitome of everything that makes Bordeaux great and with rock star prices to boot.

And Haut-Brion largely led the way back in the late 17th century. Listed in Charles II’s cellar, sampled by John Locke and name-dropped in Samuel Pepys’ diaries, as Ho Bryen “that hath a good and most particular taste I never met with”.

Haut-Brion is now part of Domaine Clarence Dillon’s stable. Dillon’s great-grandson, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, is the current owner and admits that the property has its fans but in limited quantities: “There’s no doubt that Haut-Brion has always been considered the more intellectual and the less understood of the first growths,” he says.

“So it’s always been the most popular among the professionals and those that work both in Bordeaux and across the world in the wine trade. Among the general public it’s never been as well known as the others. One of the major reasons for that is that we are so much smaller.”

This is very true. Haut-Brion is less than half the average size of most first growths. Lafite has over 100 hectares, for example, but Haut-Brion only has 48ha so circulation can never be as widespread.

While Prince Robert is happy enough to let the other first growths act as standard bearers for Bordeaux and generate some positive press, he is also keenly aware that Haut-Brion needs to simplify its messages.

The old system of Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion, their second wines and what they all did and where, was confusing even for the family in charge: “When we first started working on the estates it was difficult for me to understand what was what,” admits Prince Robert. “If my family couldn’t understand it I was sure the consumer couldn’t understand, so we tried, over the past few years, to sort our wines into three clear families.”

Prince Robert was eager that the second wines, regularly seen as the “affordable taste” of the big châteaux, were brought up to scratch. He explains: “Second wines are becoming more and more visible and they had to be, if not as great as the first wines, very worthy of the name.”

What is particularly important is staying true to Haut-Brion’s winemaking pedigree. Prince Robert explains: “I don’t believe in fashion, I believe in style. We have a very clear style at Domaine Clarence Dillon which is producing elegant, complex Bordeaux wines and that’s what we try and maintain throughout our range.”

He concludes that his family had tended to focus more on winemaking than promoting the finished product. The wineries were, “a love affair not an investment”.

Spreading the word

However, that has had to change somewhat. Prince Robert states that while he is still not too concerned about heavily marketing the domaine, it is time to start spreading the word on its quality and all the work done by his teams of winemakers and cellar workers: “All we want to do is make great wines and I am in the business of making people understand the hard work that my colleagues and I do in Bordeaux,” he says.

One persistent criticism levelled at Bordeaux, first growths very much included, is that the wines are now mere pawns in the stockbroking world. Despite all the care and attention lavished on the wine, what does it matter when it is the label that people are after?

Prince Robert acknowledges this but argues that wine has often been trading hands for one reason or another throughout history. It is only recently that it has been stigmatised as a result. “It happens that a wine at our level has been undeniably one of the greatest investments over the last two decades,” he continues.

“It’s not something that I promote or particularly would do myself. But if you can invest in wine and it can be a hobby at the same time; if you can buy two cases and sell a case after enjoying a few bottles and buy some more wine and through that finance your wine drinking, why not?”

Ultimately, once the wine leaves his hands it is no concern of his what happens to it. And he’s not too concerned as to its eventual fate. “It’s not for me to dictate how people are going to approach our wines. If it means receiving an enormous amount of enjoyment by having that bottle in your cellar, going to visit it on a regular basis and even leaving it for future generations to drink then so be it, they’ll thank you for it.

"Those bottles will be consumed; they’re not going to travel the world and be traded back and forth forever, they will be drunk. So it’s not something that I’m very worried about.”

Pricing has been a key issue in this year’s en primeur campaign but Prince Robert dismisses the notion that the Bordelais play a devious game year in year out with vintages. He argues that Bordeaux always was and still is the benchmark for quality red wine in the world. And people have never wanted it so much.

“The 2009 vintage is the masterpiece of the last century. What people see as a load of hype I don’t think is. The fact is that with high demand you get higher prices, with low demand you get lower prices and its up to the châteaux owners to have some idea of what that demand is.”

And demand has been high despite prophecies of doom and destruction from some quarters: “The market has grown enormously and that’s why you’ve seen the rise in prices. Its a matter of supply and demand, regardless of what price we might sell a bottle at, because there are that many more people that want to get their hands on it the price will go up. Just like anything, whether it’s a work of art or a rare comestible.”

However, he realises there are boundaries. Consumers need to trust his wines if they are going to be paying a lot of money for them, hence the renewed quality focus.

While Haut-Brion may lack the lustre of the other first growths it remains a popular, classic choice for those who take their claret seriously.

And Prince Robert sees no reason to dilute the château name for a fast buck: “I’m not going to take a silly short-term risk to make a bit more money by producing a higher percentage of first wine unless I think the quality is there,” he announces.

Prince Robert clearly has an eye on reviving the glory days of the estate when Haut-Brion was the claret that greased the wheels of the Age of Enlightenment and Exploration with its philosopher princes and soldier kings.

While there is a growing marketing savviness and desire to communicate its messages to a bigger audience, it is still not a château that is prone to frenzied speculation. And it might be nicer if it stayed that way.

Rupert Millar, 12.08.2010