Château Barde-Haut: Tasting & Drinking
The variety of styles available within the St Emilion appellation is many and varied. We have different terroirs, sand, gravel, limestone and clay (and blends thereof) and different varieties, with some châteaux increasingly featuring Cabernet Franc, while others stick with the traditional Merlot-dominated assemblage. I think the most striking variation, however, comes from the approach of the winemaker, in terms of ripeness at picking, the philosophy when it comes to extraction, and so on. Wines made with a focus on extreme ripeness, with a longer hang-time on the vine, and then perhaps with longer or more concerted extraction, give us St Emilion in the modern style; dark, with less well-defined, somewhat fuzzy-fruit flavours, sometimes with more tannin or alcohol than we expected.
The wines of Château Barde-Haut certainly veer towards this more modern style. The wines are clearly made with considerable dedication, and the current proprietors have succeeded in lifting the estate up from a sea of overlooked mediocrity (and there are plenty of dilute examples of this style out here to the east of St Emilion) to a wine that, at the very least, has been noticed. The wines are dark, filled with concentrated fruit flavours, a core of spicy energy which can only come from the élevage, and they tend towards higher levels of alcohol. A figure of 14.5% is commonly seen here, with a number of recent vintages declaring 15%. While this style will not be to everybody’s taste, I know many people adore these robustly fashioned wines. They sell well. The intelligent and charming Hélène Garcin-Lévêque and her husband Patrice can be rightly proud of what has been achieved here.
In terms of recent vintages, 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 all show promise, albeit within this stylistic arena. If you are wondering about the inclusion of 2017 in this list, a vintage in which I would usually avoid caution, the altitude of the Barde-Haut vineyards afforded the vines more than a degree of protection from the early-season frosts, and I find the wine very close in terms to quality to the vintages that came before it, and after it. As for older vintages, these too can have merit, with 2010 and 2005 showing well. If the style piques your interest, these wines can be a very good choice for the cellar. (1/5/15, updated 21/7/26)
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