This Is Not Just Another Winery: Haut-Bailly 1964-2018
BY NEAL MARTIN |
A winery is like a new-born baby. To outsiders, they all look the same. To their parents, they are unique and immeasurably loveable. I’ve visited countless wineries over my career, and after the first…I dunno…100-odd?...Well, they all start looking the same. There are only so many configurations of stainless-steel vats. A row of barrels is…a row of barrels. Then again, if I was in a château’s shoes, I would be proud and I would want to show off my new winery, too.
But every now and again, a new winery stops you in your tracks. That was the case with Haut-Bailly when I inspected their new facility. It was different. Its new architecture is stark and innovative, while its interior breath-taking, not in terms of throwing pots of money at it (even though a large pot of money was thrown at it) rather in respect to functionality. Like my previous article on Figeac, whose winery was constructed contemporaneously, this report coincides with a new chapter at Haut-Bailly. As well as detailing the new winery, I delve into the château’s history and the present-day modus operandi courtesy of an interview with Véronique Sanders, as well as a vertical of the last 20 vintages augmented by older bottles back to the early 1960s.
Alcide Bellot des Minières sporting a very Tolkienesque look.
History
The origin of Haut-Bailly has only really been uncovered in recent years (I recommend Jane Anson’s recent monograph for those wishing for in-depth history of the estate). Historian Hélène Brun-Pugninier discovered documents that confirm viticulture was practiced in this patch of Léognan as far back as 1392, albeit against the backdrop of a rural population devastated by the Black Plague and Hundred Years War. Brun-Pugninier found one manuscript describing the condition of vines in the lieu-dit of Pujau, where Haut-Bailly stands, dated in 1461. It refers to the land as a local high spot, hence the word “Haut” came to be included in its title. The land was owned by what seems to be a comparatively wealthy peasant Bourbon Johan family who sold part of their land to Basque wine merchant, Jehen de Goyaneche in 1540. This was the first of some 30 acquisitions that together form the genesis of Haut-Bailly. The diaspora of parcels coalesced into a “Bourdieu”, essentially a working vineyard. When the owners, now the de Haitze family, ran into financial difficulties, it was sold by public auction in 1630. The winning bidder was Firmin Le Bailly.
The Bankers (Part One)
Firmin and Nicolas Le Bailly were Parisian-based bankers, prefiguring the steady stream of financiers that acquired Bordeaux estates throughout the following centuries, most famously, the Rothschilds. At this time, much of the Médoc was marshland, and the wines of the Graves were most esteemed in crucial overseas markets such as England. Archives detail the sale of 1696 and 1697 vintages, one of the earliest mentions of specific vintage bottlings in Bordeaux. Le Bailly linked up with a trading partner, Nicolas de Leuvarde, and together they expanded the estate and established a reputation for its wine. When Le Bailly died in 1655, his widow Anne took the baton and by all accounts shared her husband’s business acumen, extant papers recording her chiding coopers for poor-quality barrels and overseeing the construction of a wooden-framed house. The estate passed through various hands including Christophe de Lafaurie who not only managed to avoid the guillotine, but went on to become mayor of Bordeaux in 1805.
On the left, Daniel Sanders and on the right, his son and successor, Jean Sanders.
The Scientist
The next chapter of Haut-Bailly is centred around what might be considered the godfather of the estate, Alcide Bellot des Minières, who has a fascinating background. Well-educated, Bellot des Minières pursued a career in international shipping, moving to the United States, where he helped establish transatlantic trade routes. On 20 April 1872, he purchased Haut-Bailly for 115,000 Francs, whereupon he set about reorganizing the vineyard and constructing the present-day château. Bellot des Minières was a viticultural expert, perhaps the Émile Peynaud of his day, earning the nom de plume, the ‘King of Winegrowers’. He instigated the draining and levelling of the land and paid meticulous attention to the soil that was rich in ‘faluns of Léognan’, a petrified sandstone distinguished with a high content of fossilized shellfish.
Bellot des Minières had one Achilles heel. Perhaps, due to a combination of success, erudition and hubris, he vehemently opposed the grafting of non-vinifera American rootstock onto European vitis vinifera to combat the phylloxera epidemic, going so far to describe the practice as “a foul abomination”.
“He was against American rootstock,” Véronique Sanders explains. “To him they were like ‘bastard vines’ and so he tried to avoid replacing them, using any alternative means possible.” Despite his recalcitrance, his stubborn refusal to accept the inevitable and thanks to his expertise and know-how, Haut-Bailly rapidly rose through the ranks and began achieving prices close to those of the First Growths. In 1878, his wine sold for 3,200 Francs per tonneau and that increased to 5,000 francs per tonneau by 1885.
