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Domain: Château Laville Haut-Brion

Chateau Laville Haut-Brion is named after one of its earliest owners, Marie Laville, widow of the referendum adviser of Queyrac, who acquired it in 1611. Many families have subsequently taken over the estate, but it is again a woman, the Duchess of Mouchy, who currently runs this chateau that is among the greatest white wines of Brodeaux. But it is a man, Frederick Woltner, who identified this exceptional terroir for the production of white wine. Indeed, early in the century owner of La Mission Haut-Brion, there occurs, from the vintage 1927, a small amount of wine from a blend Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. In 1931, he bought the vineyard of Laville, which already produces a white wine under the label Clos Laville, and a little quantity of red wine (Domaine Saint-Sauveur). Anxious to get the most of this soil of clay and shallow gravels, he replanted the vineyard in 1931 and labelled the wine Chateau Laville Terroir du Haut-Brion, which became in 1934 Chateau Laville Haut-Brion. It was soon recognized for its quality and was awarded by the Graves Classification since its first edition in 1953. In 1983, the Dillon family, owner of Chateau Haut Brion, bought both chateau La Mission Haut-Brion and Laville Haut-Brion to the heirs of Woltner. Since then, grapes from vines over sixty years of age are vinified by the team of Jean-Bernard Delmas, and since 2003 by his son Jean-Philippe. Then they are aged nine to twelve months in oak barrels, half of which is renewed annually.