2015 Chateau Haut-Bailly Pessac-Leognan 750 ml

Normally in Pessac-Léognan, Château Haut-Brion has few, if any, equals. But in the phenomenal 2015 vintage, the priceless First Growth has found a rival — and it is Château Haut-Bailly. The proof is in the scores. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate says “this vintage is truly an iron fist in a velvet glove. The finish goes on and on…”   And that “Although it is tempting and indeed delicious right now, the wine still possesses many restrained layers and should handsomely reward the patient.”  In the 2015 season, Haut-Bailly director Véronique Sanders saw shades of 2005, 2010, and 2009 — all of the millennium’s most historic vintages.  

Bob Wilmers, the American owner of Château Haut-Bailly who passed away last year, was known for his humility and discretion. He was wise enough to know that a foreign owner of a legendary Bordeaux estate should listen more than he speaks. He was also wise enough to hire Véronique Sanders, whose grandfather had purchased Haut-Bailly in 1955 after falling in love with the wine a decade earlier. Over the last two decades, Sanders has overseen the remarkable rise of Château Haut-Bailly.

Haut-Bailly’s sloping 74-acre vineyard boasts diverse soils and a 20-meter elevation change, a growing environment that allows the estate to thrive in both wetter and drier vintages. This consistency extends the jewel of the estate: a 10-acre plot of low-yielding, century-old vines that were planted by the owner of the château at the turn of the last century. These grapes are responsible for a layer of concentration and depth that runs through every vintage of Haut-Bailly.

If Château Haut-Bailly is “an insider wine,” as Véronique Sanders calls it, it has been hiding in plain sight. Decanter calls it “one of the very top estates of the region.” Robert Parker has praised its “exceptional elegance in top vintages.” Sanders says Haut-Bailly was “blessed” in 2015, and it yielded “one of the greatest Haut Baillys I have ever tasted,” according to Decanter, in a 98-point rave for this “utterly delicious” wine. The 2015 is a wine that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Château Haut-Brion, the finest wine in Pessac-Léognan, and one of the finest in the world.