1998 Château Les Carmes Haut Brion

Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a 12-acre estate in Pessac, in the Pessac-Leognan appellation of Bordeaux. It was founded in 1584, when a 101-year-old aristocrat decided to give part of his estate to a community of friars called Les Carmes. They owned the vineyard until the French Revolution and it is today owned by the La Patromoniale of Group Pichet, a large real estate concern. Vineyards are planted to 50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The estate makes only about 4,000 bottles annually of its flagship Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, and Robert M. Parker Jr. has called it “a tiny gem of an estate (that) offers superb wines…They owe their extraordinary finesse as well as explosive aromatics to their relatively high percentage of Cabernet Franc.”

Pessac-Léognan was created in 1987 from the northern part of the left bank Graves appellation. Before then it was simply part of Graves, or sometimes it was called Haut-Graves. Unlike many other Bordeaux appellations, Pessac-Léognan is known for both red and dry white wines, although its reds are more famous. The appellation includes ten communes and the area’s most important châteaux, including Château Haut-Brion, the only non-Médoc estate included in the 1855 Bordeaux classification. There are 2,964 acres of vineyards in Pessac-Léognan and 16 classified growth estates. The main red grapes grown are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, along with a small amount of Cabernet Franc. White grapes grown are Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, with a little Muscadelle. Pessac-Léognan is considered to have the best terroir of the greater Graves region.