Bending Rules: Les Carmes Haut-Brion 1955-2019
BY NEAL MARTIN |
Bordeaux châteaux tend to take years to change direction. Dismantle an entrenched and outdated modus operandi and reconfigure so that a new vision is realised. But once in a while, a change is so radical that it’s as if someone snapped their fingers, et voilà! An estate is reborn, almost unrecognisable from its previous incarnation. I remember visiting Les Carmes Haut-Brion 1.0 in the late Nineties. It was just another Pessac-Léognan, quirky and quaint, a Lesser Spotted Haut-Brion that had survived urban sprawl, whose wines had a penchant to charm and yet rarely quickened the pulse. I visited out of curiosity more than anything. A few years later, I recall setting eyes on Les Carmes Haut-Brion 2.0 for the first time. They almost popped out of my head. It was as if a giant submarine had surfaced in the city’s suburbs, a dazzling architectural overhaul commensurate with a startling re-invention of the wine.
This article thoroughly examines those changes, from out in the vines to deep inside that “submarine.” I look at the anatomy of a sui generis and its thinking outside the box, how despite all this reinvention, there are common threads binding past, present and future.
It turned out to be one of the most fascinating visits in recent years.
I would not have expected anything less.
The original château was built in the 19th century.
History
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Not so long ago Les Carmes Haut-Brion was just another Pessac-Léognon estate. Now it’s one of Bordeaux’s most forward-thinking châteaux. I recently spent a morning with winemaker Guillaume Pouthier, as I wanted to discover the anatomy of the estate and what links its past, present and future.
