The label on this bottle will read Graves, not Pessac-Léognan. The appellation that now covers Haut-Brion was not created until 1987, so a 1949 predates it by nearly forty years. The château was already an island inside the suburbs of Bordeaux by then, owned since 1935 by the American banker Clarence Dillon, and it remains the only estate outside the Médoc admitted to the 1855 classification.
1949 was hot, dry and low-yielding, one of the great post-war vintages. Haut-Brion's gravel mounds hold heat and drain hard, which in a summer like that gave unusual density and the warm, smoky, earth-and-embers character that separates it from its Médoc neighbours.
This particular bottle is offered strictly as a collector's item. The fill has fallen to low shoulder across seventy-seven years and the capsule is slightly damaged, which together make it very unlikely the wine inside is still sound. What you are buying is a famous object from a famous year, and it is priced well below an intact bottle for that reason.
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Producer: Château Haut-Brion
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Vintage: 1949
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Appellation: Pessac-Léognan AOC
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Format: 75cl
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Region: Bordeaux, France
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Style: Red
Where it is likely to be now. At low-shoulder fill a red of this age has almost certainly oxidised, so treat this as a display bottle from the year rather than something to plan an evening around.
Who it suits. Suits a seventy-seventh birthday for a collector rather than a drinker: a first-growth label and a legendary year, bought as an object.
Condition. The wine level has dropped to low shoulder and the capsule is slightly damaged, and the merchant sells it for collection only — we pass that on plainly rather than soften it.
Provenance. Bought to order from a professional European merchant. We check fill, label and capsule when the bottle reaches us and photograph it before it ships.
Delivered in 7 to 10 working days, tracked. Transit cover can be added at checkout.
Sold as a collectible item, as seen. No guarantee is given on drinkability.
