Personalities

Prince Robert of Luxembourg: “Ultimately, it is about wine”
«Enoteka» №9(66) 2008

Right after a historic tasting of La Mission Haut-Brion, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, being in a cheerful mood, agreed to give a summary of the day in a special interview.

– What are your impressions from the tasting?

– First of all, from a standpoint of a wine lover I share the interest and the excitement of other tasters. A tasting like this gives a historical view over the estate way beyond of what most of us are usually able to attend. I was able to taste 20 vintages that I’ve never tasted before. So, from a pure wine amateur basis I was able to take notes for myself. Obviously, that is a joy to me. Beyond that, I was delighted to be surrounded by such knowledgeable people who are able to speak about wine so eloquently and whose understanding of Château La Mission Haut-Brion goes way beyond the 25 years of my family involvement in the estate. So we had the wine, and we also had a verbal, intellectual history of people like Michael Broadbent, David Peppercorn, James Suckling, Jancis RobinsonThe restaurant was a perfect place, the service was ideal, as was the food. But I should be asking you this question — what do you think?

– I found it very instructive, and we will talk about it more. The experience of having such an array of vintages including the lesser vintages along with the greatest wines was amazing. It gave a great historic insight into the evolution of the chateau and the wines.

– We’ve never done anything like this before for any of our estates (besides La Mission Haut-Brion, the Dillon family owns chateaux Haut-Brion, La Tour Haut-Brion, Laville Haut-Brion — E.S. ). We deliberately decided to have a tasting in London because it seemed an easier way to travel. The Square restaurant has become internationally renowned, and I thought it was very appropriate for our wine.

– So the tasting was meant for an international circle of guests, and not just British?

– Yes. Obviously, being in London, the presence of the UK press was greater, but then the British press and wine professionals are still very important for the international markets. It is also the case for a British broker Farr Vintners (the tasting’s co-organiser — E.S. ) that sells wine in Asia and other markets, and it is also true for auction houses like Christie’s or Sotheby’s. They might be based in Britain but they have an international network and deal with international clientele. And, of course, the likes of Neal Martin or you who may have someone reading your writings in the United States and in other countries, or on internet. The world has changed. We weren’t planning to span out across the globe, but we certainly wanted to share a piece of La Mission Haut-Brion history with the international audience.

– While the tasting was organized in honour of the 25 years’ presence of the Dillon family at Château La Mission Haut-Brion, you took a bold decision to present vintages dating back to 1929 which were made in a different era by different people. What was your intension?

– I wanted the wines to be tasted. The first thing I said when I started to speak was that my family were wardens, meaning they look after the property. We’ve been there for 25 years, and this is a very small part of the history of La Mission. I hope we’ll be there for many centuries to come, but ultimately it is all about La Mission, the estate, and not about us. We are merely trying to put forward the quality and the potential of the quality at La Mission.

Indeed, vintages like 1929, 1945, 1953, 1955, 1975, 1982 are all extraordinary. What we brought in our era is greater regularity in quality. I am sure that in the last ten years La Mission had the best quality that was ever produced in its entire history. By having other vintages present I wanted to prove that we inherited a potential for that quality. La Mission has always been considered the other First Growth. Of course, our production is much lower because we have on average 6,000 cases, while other First Growths might be producing more. La Mission has only 26 hectares, Margaux — 65, Lafite and Mouton have 100 hectares each. We are much smaller, but we have always enjoyed reputation on par with those estates, and great tasters always treated La Mission as a First Growth. That’s the way I see it and that’s why I wanted to go further to say it’s true that we can’t have great vintages all the time. When the economy was hard, there was no incentive to do all this work in the vineyards or in the winery. Obviously, we can’t go back in the 1960-70s, but results could have been different had the work been done like, for example, what we did in a difficult 2007 vintage. Before an extraordinary number of circumstances, including perfect weather, were needed to create such vintages as 1975, 1959, 1961 or 1982. Today we can have superb wine in lesser vintages.

– Were there new surprises or discoveries for you at the tasting?

– There are certain vintages that I already discovered in the past, so I was familiar with 1978 that I find exceptional; 1983, which is not considered to be great vintage, but which I find exceptional; 1991, which is not considered to be great vintage either. The biggest surprises to me were vintages that I knew to be great but that I had never tasted — 1929, 1945, 1955. I would never dare to open up these old vintages by myself, but I am delighted to be able to share this kind of wine being surrounded by some of the most eminent tasters of the world, even if it’s the end of our stocks. It’s a one-off affair, but it was a perfect venue to be able to share it.