Although by all accounts the vine has been rampant in these parts since at least Roman times, the earliest written mention that our archivist has discovered, citing a parcel of vines being cultivated at Haut-Brion dates back to only 1423.
In the early days wines were known by the name of... the parishes from whence they came. Later they became known as clarets. In the case of Haut-Brion, under the great stewardship of the Pontac family the wine's reputation was for years represented by the name of this enlightened and well respected family-- Pontac wine.
Eventually as its renown grew, the name of the Estate came to replace that of its owners. The notion of a Great Growth was born! We find the first written mention of the wine in the Diaries of Samuel Pepys. While visiting the Royal Oak Tavern in London on April 10, 1663 Pepys wrote ´There I drank a sort of French wine called Ho-Bryan (sic) which hath a good and most particular taste which I never before encountered.....´
At Château Haut-Brion, most of the wine is put in new barrels for a period of 18 to 24 months. This use of new barrels goes back to the beginning of the 18th Century -- when it was learned that old, poorly cared-for casks would spoil the new wine. This marvelous vessel allows a single man to easily handle and move the contents of more than 300 bottles.
Furthermore, a new cask happens to be the ideal recipient for maturing great wines. The oak diffuses tannin, throws off impurities and develops fragrance. The wine, charged with CO2 during fermentation, releases the gas during the first year as the cask remains open (with the bung-hole topped by a loose-fitting glass stopper). The barrel is then hermetically sealed (with the corked bung to the side) and, the absorption of the wine by the wood being constant, a partial vacuum is produced that eases the transfer of oxygen through the pores of the wood. This gentle and very slight oxidation helps in the aging and improvement of the wine.
Throughout its time in the barrel, a wine progressively loses the suspended particles that it contains. By a series of decantings or ´rackings´ -- four times a year -- the cellar hands separate the clear wine from the lees that fall to the bottom of the casks. During the second year, the ´fining´ (an addition of six lightly beaten egg whites per barrel) speeds up the precipitation of particles in the wine to the bottom.
By evaporation, elimination, or absorption by the wood, about 15% of the harvest will be lost during the two to two and a half years that the wine is kept in cask.
Once the biological changes are completed, the pristine clarity achieved, the wine is ready to be bottled and, therefore, to begin a final process of extremely slow aging. This will gradually reveal, over the years, the marriage of fragrance and flavor needed for a great wine.
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