Château Haut-Bailly - The Odyssée vintage

At Château Haut-Bailly, they named this vintage ‘Odyssée’.

Taken from the adventures of Ulysse, or better known as Odysseus, that after fighting the battle of Troy, took 10 years to come back home to Peneloppe, free himself from the cyclops, walked away from the mermaids enchanted voices, following is path, knowing is end goal and got home without losing his identity.

This all to say that 2023 was not the easiest of vintages and in order to get out of it with the best outcome, you had to be ready and battle through the odds and outsmart the conditions thrown at you and not lose where you were intending to go. A job well done.

Château Haut-Bailly is always evolving and working towards its performances, its terroir and its methodology to obtain the best results. Always reinvesting. Biodiversity is also an important part with more than 6000 trees planted of 60 different types as well as hedges. Previous vintages have modelled their ability to convey the best work in the vineyards and respond to any issues each vintage may throw at them. In previous vintages where mildew was also an issue such as in 2018, they only had 1 tractor to work all the property’s land while they now have 4 which has surely made a positive impact in response to the 2023 vintage.

2023 started with the budbreak being 10 days early. Having said that, when it came to the flowering period, all went better than planned. All happened within a few days and without any issues. This meant a good vintage in view. Luckily also, mildew arrived once the flowers were closed into future berries, meaning the quantities of possible grapes and berries per grapes was optimum.

Veraison started 15 days early too with a month long of maturation. The end of august and September made the vintage. Perfect conditions of rain when needed and warm spells of weather that brought perfect ripeness at time of harvest.

This year also marks the third vintage in the new cellars. A state of the art premise that blends with the natural outside environment. All designed to work the wine with less stress through gravity equipped with an optimal temperature control their ability to respect the quality of their harvest in order to produce the optimum quality of wine at every vintage.

Haut-Bailly

58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot. 14,5% abv with 50% of new oak aging. The wine is exquisite. Balance, length and great tension with ripe cassis fruit, plum, pencil lead towards the wet bleu slate flavour. It develops to some ripe blackberry which makes it almost accessible now yet a wine that will see its apogee in at least 40 years from now.

Haut-Bailly II

64% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc. 14,5% abv with 30% of new oak aging. Punchy and aromatic in the nose. Charming and smooth with an energetic structure on the palate. Quite perfumed and concentrated yet the fruit is ripe and feels like you’re just biting in it. The finish is long with an earthy mineral expression.

While having lunch with in the company of Mr. Gabriel Vialand et Mme Veronique Sanders, I asked Gabriel what other vintage he would compare 2023 with. His answer was as qualitative as his wines. He said that you could compare 2022 and 2023 as being 2015 and 2016, 2009 and 2010, 1989 and 1990. One being more opulent and ripe while the other more on its fruit, structure and tension.