2021

La Clarence de Haut-Brion

Similar in style and elegance to its elder, the Château Haut-Brion red, this second wine brings together all the unique attributes of a fine wine, while reaching maturity more quickly. This wine has carried the name Château Bahans Haut-Brion since the first years of the twentieth century and was renamed Le Clarence de Haut-Brion beginning with the 2007 vintage, as a tribute to Clarence Dillon, who acquired the property in 1935.

Tasting notes

A beautiful, luminous ruby-red colour.  It is fruity and compact on the nose.
Swirling reveals complex notes of blackberry and raspberry.
The first taste is tightly-knit and flavourful. Then the wine develops,
giving fullness with a taste of red fruit jelly and length is average.
This wine will reveal itself during maturation and will be a gem of pleasure!

The weather

The mildness of winter 2021 causes budburst to start early on 1st March. In spring, the month of April is marked by a severe incidence of frost in the Bordeaux region. The position of Haut-Brion’s vineyard once again shows its inestimable value, as the frost spared the large majority of the plots. Heavy rain during the months of May and June has little impact on the vines. In keeping with spring, the beginning of summer is wet and quite cool, so the vine develops slowly. 2021 is a winegrower’s vintage, one in which the vineyard requires a lot of attention. In early August, meteorological instability makes way for hot, dry weather, with cool nights that are propitious for the grapes’ development, in terms of their technological ripeness, as well as their aromatic characteristics. A month of fine weather enables us to reach harvesting time serenely, with grapes of superb quality. In the end, ripeness is attained, with tremendous freshness in the grapes and lower degrees of alcohol than in past years, reminding us of classic Bordeaux vintages of the 1990s.   

A few figures

  • Harvest dates

    From 13th September to 8th October

  • Blend

    Merlot : 70.4%
    Cabernet Sauvignon : 18.2%
    Cabernet Franc : 11.4%

  • New barrels

    28%

  • Alcohol

    13.6%