Château Haut-Bailly: Alcide Bellot des Minières
I think it is safe to say that, of all the characters who have so far made an appearance in this story, it is Alcide Bellot des Minières (1828 – 1906) who had the greatest impact on the running of Château Haut-Bailly. Originally an engineer, the reasons for Bellot des Minières turning to viticulture are not clear. It is possible that his brother, personal secretary to Cardinal Bonnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who probably first spotted that the estate was for sale, encouraged him in his purchase. Nevertheless, Bellot des Minières grasped the nettle firmly, reorganising and expanding the vineyards first, and then moving on to build the château, which still stands to this day.
The wine’s reputation soared, and prices soon matched those of a deuxième cru from further north; flushed with success Bellot des Minières described his wine to all as a Premier Grand Cru Exceptionnel, and the term Cru Exceptionnel can still be found on the Château Haut-Bailly label as recently as the 1985 vintage, only disappearing in 1986. He himself came to be known as Le Roi des Vignerons; nevertheless, not all of the regal Bellot de Minières’ decisions were so royally astute. As phylloxera advanced across Bordeaux and the whole of France, he shunned the new solution of planting grafted vines, rejecting the resulting wines as ‘incomplete’. He plodded on, spraying his vineyards with an ineffective copper ammonia solution, and at the beginning of the 20th century Château Haut-Bailly was still planted wholly with ungrafted vines.
