Château Haut-Brion: Talleyrand
Talleyrand (pictured, in the portrait, below), or Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754 – 1838) to give him his full title, French foreign minister and distinguished international diplomat, paid a handsome price for Château Haut-Brion and yet despite this he seems to have given it scant attention; I suspect he preferred the palatial luxury of Château de Valençay, his primary residence. He sold Haut-Brion just three years after making his purchase, admittedly for a good profit. It was acquired first by the banker Michel Aîné; he then sold it on to a business partnership comprising a stockbroker and négociant named Comynes and Beyerman respectively. One provided on-site expertise while the other I would imagine put up the funds.
This arrangement lasted until 1836 when once again the property was put on the market, for sale at auction. It was acquired at a price considerably higher than that achieved with the Talleyrand-Aîné deal, despite the estate’s dwindling reputation, and the new owner paying this princely sum was yet another banker, Joseph-Eugène Larrieu.
The wine that was made at Château Haut-Brion at this time may have perhaps not been so good as it once had been, as noted by authors and merchants of the day, including Lawton in 1815 and Franck in 1824. Nevertheless, despite the prevailing opinion we should not overlook the fact that the wine was of sufficient repute and commanded a sufficiently high price for it to not only be the sole Graves estate included in the 1855 classification of the Médoc, but also for it to be ranked at the very highest level alongside Margaux, Lafite-Rothschild and Latour.
All the same, quality certainly seems to have declined in the years that followed, as it did for much of Bordeaux during the 19th and 20th centuries, the compound effect of phylloxera, mildew, oidium, war and economic depression.
