Bordeaux 2009 Primeurs: Pessac-Léognan
A tasting at La Mission Haut-Brion tends, I find, to engender a gentle sense of piety. The tiny waiting room downstairs, lined entirely with wood panelling and with wooden benches along several of the four walls, is very like a church antechamber. It is a place to gather and compose yourself before entering the confessional, no doubt to pour out your sins; your hidden lust for Californian Cabernets, and those inappropriate thoughts about Burgundy you had last week, perhaps. That this is so should perhaps not be such a surprise; after all, La Mission was indeed donated to the Catholic church in 1664 by Catherine de Mullet, and there has been a chapel on the estate since 1698.
But perhaps such a pious state of mind is truly warranted. After all this wait precedes an opportunity to taste not only La Mission, but also stable-mate Haut-Brion, the two second wines Le Clarence and La Chapelle, as well as the white wines. Altogether there were seven wines presented this year, which you would think would provide adequate scope for confusion. Not enough scope for Jean-Philippe Delmas and team, however, who have – following on from the renaming of Bahans-Haut-Brion (now Le Clarence) in the 2007 vintage, and the disappearance of La Tour Haut-Brion in 2005 – now changed things around even further. The biggest news is that Laville-Haut-Brion is no more; this cuvée has been rechristened La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc, which according to Haut-Brion PR-queen Turid Hoed Alcaras was a prior (and therefore valid) name dating to the 1920s. And the second white wine, taking fruit from Haut-Brion and La Mission and previously called Les Plantiers is now going by the name of Clarté. As in clarity, apparently. Well, I suppose the intentions were good!
