Château Haut-Bages Libéral

A historic Médoc property

Château Haut Bages Libéral was founded in the 17th century by the Libéral family. At the time, they sold their production abroad, mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium. The estate's wines were a welcome guest at the political meetings of the fledgling liberal parties. On the occasion of the 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte launched the classification of the Médoc Grands Crus. By this time, Haut Bages Libéral had already achieved such a high status that it was able to join this list of châteaux which, to this day, is the reference in the field and serves as a guide for many Bordeaux wine lovers.

Like many of its neighbors, Château Haut Bages Libéral suffered from a succession of viticultural, military and economic crises between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It wasn't until the turn of the 1960s that it was given a new lease of life by its new owners: the Cruse family. They restored the entire production tool, from the vines (uprooting and planting new vines) to the winery. This work was continued by the next owners, the Villars-Merlaut family, who bought the château in 1982. Haut Bages Libéral was restored to its former glory.

Pauillac terroirs magnified

Château Haut Bages Libéral is one of those Bordeaux estates at the forefront of the transition to organic and biodynamic farming. Here, terroir is the key word in the approach to viticulture - and winemaking. AB certification is due in 2019, and biodynamic viticulture is already practiced here despite the absence of a label. For the château's teams, it's all about respecting their ecosystem and producing wines that are faithful to their terroir.

Château Haut Bages Libéral has the advantage of being spread over two types of soil: one composed of deep gravel, the other clay-limestone. This allows us to achieve a balance between power and minerality, between the warmth of the gravel and the freshness of the limestone soils. As with most Médoc estates, Cabernet Sauvignon dominates the blends, notably due to the limestone and gravel soils where it thrives, producing wines of rarely equaled power and complexity.

The role of the château's teams is to magnify this terroir by giving the vines all the care they need. This means choosing the right grape variety in the right place - and the right genetic individual - as well as paying close attention to the vine's vegetative cycle (pruning, disbudding, green harvesting...), and finally biodynamic treatments (dynamizing plant infusions...). Once in the winery, the grapes benefit from the same rigor, thanks to a production tool renovated in 2018 to be able to vinify each plot individually and adapt to its specificity so that it reveals its full potential when the vats are assembled and the final wine bottled.

The wines of Château Haut Bages-Libéral

To ensure that only the best juices make it into the château Haut Bages Libéral blend, second and third wines have been devised. Grapes judged to be below the level expected of a grand vin are thus relegated to La Chapelle de Haut Bages Libéral or le Haut-Médoc de Haut Bages Libéral. Across the whole range, Haut Bages Libéral stands out for its freshness and finesse, right from its youngest years, with fine tannins and a greediness not often found in its Pauillac neighbors.