Chateau Haut Bergey Graves Pessac Leognan Bordeaux Wine

Chateau Haut Bergey Graves, Pessac Leognan, Bordeaux wine producer profile, with wine tasting notes, wine ratings, a history of the property, information on wine making and terroir, along with wine tasting reviews. If you want to read about other important, Bordeaux Chateaux: Links to all Bordeaux Wine Producer Profiles

Chateau Haut Bergey has a long history in the Bordeaux wine region dating all the way back to the 15th century. It started out life under the name of La maison noble de Pontey. Sir Jean-François de Cresse, a member the Bordeaux parliament, bought the estate in 1700. Within 24 months, he grew the Bordeaux vineyards to 100 hectares.

Believe it or not, a century later, the Bordeaux wine vineyards of Haut Bergey were allowed to drift into a state of non production. In 1850, a new chateau was built. Jumping ahead almost 150 years, in March, 1991, Sylviane Garcin-Cathiard purchased Chateau Haut Bergery. Garcin-Cathiard, the Granddaughter of a well-known Bordeaux wine merchant turned the Pessac Leognan estate around. Today, the Pessac Leognan estate is managed by Helene Garcin Levesque.

The vineyards of Haut Bergery are situated in middle of the small village of Leognan. The Pessac Leognan vineyards take up 26.5 hectares of vines that are planted with grapes for white Bordeaux wine and red Bordeaux wine in gravel based soils.
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Haut Bergey is popular with consumers. It delivers a lot of quality for the price for the white and red wine. In fact, the estate offers some of the best Bordeaux wine for the money in the entire Pessac Leognan appellation. However, some vintages of the red Bordeaux wine have expressed too much oak.  A touch less oak might show a bit more freshness in the wine. The white Haut Bergey is very good, but so little is made, it’s almost impossible to find. Like the red, it sells for a very fair price.

Haut Bergey uses 5 hectares of their Bordeaux vineyards for their white wine production. The vineyards are planted to 65% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Semillon for Haut Bergey Blanc.

For the red wines, their vineyards are planted to 54% Cabernet Sauvignon and 46% Merlot with vines that are on average 35 years of age. The vines are planted to a density of 6,500 vines per hectare. Haut Bergey is vinified in temperature controlled, stainless steel vats and aged in about 50% new, French oak barrels for between 16 and 18 months. For the vinification of the white wine, fermentation takes place in barrel with aging taking place on its lees. The wine is aged in close to 30% new, French oak for between 10 and 12 months, depending on the character of the vintage.

In most vintages, Chateau Haut Bergey produces close to 4,500 cases of red Bordeaux wine per year. Haut Bergey makes close to 400 cases per year of their white, Pessac Leognan wine. Alain Raynaud is the consultant. They also produce a second wine, L’Etoile de Bergey.

In addition to Chateau Haut Bergey, the Garcin-Cathiard also own Chateau Branon in Pessac Leognan, and two estates in the Rght Bank, Chateau Barde Haut in St. Emilion and Clos L’Eglise in Pomerol.

www.vignoblesgarcin.com