Château Haut-Batailley: Vineyards
The vineyards of Château Haut-Batailley lie to the east of the D206, which runs southwest out of Pauillac. For the appellation in question this is quite peripheral; the boundary with St Julien is located just a few hundred metres south of the château. Unsurprisingly, the estate’s nearest neighbour is Château Batailley itself, which lies just around the corner from Château Haut-Batailley, on the aforementioned D206.
The majority of the vineyards are closely associated with the château, between the building and the road, including in the southern section vines that were once part of Château La Couronne, a small property acquired by the Borie family in 1932. Of note, just to the east is the Petit-Batailley vineyard which belongs to Château Latour, which is largely utilised for that estate’s second wine, Les Forts de Latour. Just to the north of these Latour vines there was once fallow land; this has since been planted up by the Cazes family. A parcel in the heart of the vineyard, situated directly between the château and La Tour l’Aspic, has also been planted for the first time in many years. And a small parcel situated to the west, again adjacent to some peripheral Latour vines, has also been re-established by the Cazes family. It is this extensive planting that his brought the vineyard up from 22 hectares at the time of the change of ownership in 2017, to 41 hectares today.
These 41 hectares include a few other parcels which lie more distant. There are several valuable plots on the Saint-Lambert plateau to the east, a curious multi-parcellated corner of the Pauillac appellation where ownership is divided between perhaps a dozen different châteaux. A few of these parcels belong to Haut-Batailley, and while most were planted at the time the Cazes family took control, again one or two small plots were still fallow, and have since been replanted. Other châteaux which own parcels in this patchwork quilt of vineyards include Château Latour, Château Pichon Comtesse, Château Pichon Baron, Château Lynch-Bages, Château Haut-Bages-Libéral and Château Croizet-Bages, among others.
