Château La Tour Haut-Brion
Château La Tour Haut-Brion was a Bordeaux wine estate in the Pessac-Léognan area of Graves. It was classified as Cru Classé for red wine in the Graves Classifications of 1953 and 1959.
The estate was near Bordeaux in Talence, next to Château La Mission Haut-Brion. Its last vintage was 2005, after Domaine Clarence Dillon decided to discontinue the label. Since then, fruit from La Tour Haut-Brion has been used in Château La Mission Haut-Brion’s wines.
Vines were first planted by the Rostaing family in the 16th century, when the estate was called La Tour de Rostaing or La Tour d’Esquivens. The Saige family owned it around the time of the French Revolution, and widow Saige avoided expropriation. In the 19th century the Cayrou brothers added the name Haut-Brion to the estate. By 1850 the full name La Tour Haut-Brion was recognized.
Louis Uzac bought the property in 1858 and made restorations and modernization. In 1890 it was sold to Victor Coustau. After Coustau’s death in 1924, the Woltner family, neighbors who owned La Mission Haut-Brion and Laville Haut-Brion, ran the production for the widow Coustau and later inherited the estate in 1935. Fernand and Henri Woltner were known for innovation, and Henri was praised as a “wine-making genius.”
In 1953 La Tour Haut-Brion was classified as Cru Classé. By the mid-1960s the estate covered about 10 acres (4 hectares) and produced around 1,000 cases a year. After the Woltner brothers died in 1974, the Dewavrin family managed the property and some suggested treating La Tour Haut-Brion as a second wine for La Mission. They sold the estate in 1983 to the Dillon Family, owners of Château Haut-Brion since 1935, bringing four Haut-Brion châteaux under Domaine Clarence Dillon.
Caretaker Jean Delmas later treated La Tour Haut-Brion as a separate cru again. In April 2007, Domaine Clarence Dillon announced that starting with the 2006 vintage, the La Tour Haut-Brion grapes would be blended into La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion, the second wine of La Mission Haut-Brion, and as the vines aged they could be used for La Mission’s grand vin. This effectively made 2005 the final vintage for La Tour Haut-Brion.
The vineyards covered nearly 5 hectares (about 12 acres), with a grape mix of 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, and 35% Cabernet Franc. In its final years, La Tour Haut-Brion produced about 2,000 to 2,500 cases per year (roughly 180 to 220 hL).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:04 (CET).