2017 Les Carmes Haut-Brion

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It’s amazing what a bit of dosh can do for an estate. Take Les Carmes Haut-Brion. Just a few years ago it was meandering along. It could surprise in some vintages, disappoint in others. Consistency was never its forte but it always had charm. Now look. With a conspicuous pile of euros lavished in the vineyard and a winery beamed down from the future, Les Carmes Haut-Brion has attracted a lot of attention and it is rapidly becoming one of the most touted wines within the commune. And a bit of a sui generis. Winemaker Guilhaume Pouthier is the “talent” and the “energy” behind this resurrection. He hardly breaks to breath as he describes everything going on at the winery, the growing season and vinification. “It was an early vintage. This is an important factor,” Pouthier tells me. “We did not suffer frost at all. We picked from 4 to 9 September and the blend is: 41% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon (more than usual) and 30% Merlot. There is less alcohol than usual at 13.3°, but the same pH at 3.6, so you keep the freshness. This year we used 45% whole bunches.” Ah – whole bunches. Whilst in vogue in Burgundy, the use of stem addition in Bordeaux has not caught on in the same way as amphora or biodynamics. To my mind, only Smith Haut-Lafitte used some whole bunches fruit in 2017, albeit at a lower percentage. As I have written before, it is a practice that carries some risk inasmuch that you must ensure that your stems are fully lignified, not to mention onus upon consumers to afford its bottle age before it subsumes any stemminess and turns it into interesting secondary aromas and flavors. Here, I think it works well. Pouthier has experienced winemaking in other regions so he has some knowledge and to be honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing the practice tried and tested elsewhere...just to “see”. Pouthier had more to say though... “There is usually a lot of reduction [in my wines]. I make wine for the future when it is going to be drunk. I try to construct a wine that does not leave a hole. I do less infusion these days. It is not about the volume: I want verticality rather than horizontality. The [2017] vintage is pure. The new generation is not making powerful wines, but more balanced wines and perhaps in the past I went a bit over. Now I keep more in reserve, I work on the sensation of the tannin in the mouth and freshness in the wine. I also decrease the pH because it makes the wine more pure. I learned a lot from this vintage.” The result is one of the most individual wines you will find in Bordeaux, thanks to the high proportion of Cabernet Franc, the stem addition and so forth. Oddly enough, the bouquet reminded me of a fine Burgundy instead of say, a Loire that you might expect given the blend. Certainly it is imbued with a compelling linearity, not a wine of weight and power, but one with impressive persistence. Of course, all that is irrelevant if it does not taste good. And you know, it tastes good.

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