[ Home > Wines > Bordeaux > Graves & Pessac-Leognan > Chateau La Chapelle De La Mission 2000 - Bordeaux ]
Pessac Leognan Bordeaux Readers looking for an excellent value should seek out the limited production of La Mission's second wine, La Chapelle de la Mission. The top-notch 2000 offers a sweet, jammy nose of caramel, blackberries, cassis, and smoke. High levels of glycerin coat the mouth like melting marrow. Sweet, deep, full-bodied, and hedonistic, revealing much of La Mission's style, it is best consumed during its first 10-12 years of life. Rated 90-91 Robert Parker The vineyard of Château La Mission Haut Brion owes its name, origin and ancient reputation to a congregation which is called "The Mission Preachers" founded in the 17th century by Saint Vincent de Paul. After the Revolution, the property was confiscated and put up for sale. In 1792 it was acquired by Martial-Victor Vaillant. In 1821, the estate passed into the hands of a richer farmer, followed by Jerome and then Victor Coustau. Finally in 1920, Frederic Woltner purchased La Mission Haut Brion. A few years later, in 1924 Madame Coustau sold to the Woltners, the neighboring vineyard of La tour Haut Brion. Woltner's genius was widely recognized in Bordeaux. He was known as a gifted taster and oenologist and was pioneer in installing easy to clean metal, glass lined fermentation tanks in 1926, which even today are among the most unusual looking in all of Bordeaux. Henri Woltner, Frederic's son, passed away in 1974 leaving la Mission to be managed by FranÁoise and Francis Dewavrin-Woltner. Internal family bickering over the administration of this property ultimately led to the sale of La Mission an its two sister properties La Tour Haut Brion and Laville Haut Brion to the Domaine Clarence Dillon, owner of Château Haut Brion, in 1983. Like all second wines, La Chapelle comes from the same vines and matures the same way as the first wine, Château La Mission Haut-Brion. It is cared for the same way to give it the same harmony and the same aromas. La Chapelle is made from the younger vines which have not yet developed the maturity and perfection demanded of a top wine. The continual renewal of the different parcels means that each year there is a certain amount of pulling up and replanting. Usually the parcel will lie fallow for at least twelve months. It is replanted the third year. The first harvest comes only three years after planting. This initial harvest and the six that follow are generally not blended with top wine. About ten years are required to allow the root system to burrow down through the gravelly soil and gain the depth necessary to the vine to receive with regularity the water it needs. This consistency, once established, is what conditions the good development and maturity of the grapes. Nevertheless, the wine of La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion, stemmed from the same prestigious terroir as La Mission, is a wonderful wine appreciated by the connoisseurs More information at www.haut-brion.com |
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