Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion 2016

A bequest, a chapel and a cardinal's line

La Mission's story begins with a marriage. In 1540 the Bordeaux merchant Arnaud de Lestonnac bought a plot called Arregedhuys, and that same year he married Marie, sister of Jean de Pontac, the founder of neighboring Chateau Haut-Brion. According to the estate, Lestonnac built up a property devoted to vines plant by plant and plot by plot, and the two estates have been linked ever since.

His granddaughter Olive de Lestonnac, born in 1572, was three times married and three times widowed, with no children. She gave much of her fortune to charity, and her will left an annuity that, after some twists, was transferred in 1682 to the Lazarists of Bordeaux, the Priests of the Mission. The Church now owned the estate, and the name La Mission was born. In 1698 the priests built a chapel, Notre-Dame d'Aubrion, that still stands; a 1729 report counted eight priests, four brothers and five servants making about 24 barrels of wine.

The wine found a powerful fan in 1755, when the Marshal Duke of Richelieu became governor of Guyenne. The estate tells how he asked his servant where a remarkable wine came from, was told La Mission Haut-Brion, and borrowed his great-uncle Cardinal Richelieu's line: if God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good? The Revolution ended Church ownership. The estate was confiscated in 1792 and sold at auction as a national asset to the businessman Martial-Victor Vaillant for 302,000 livres.

From New Orleans to the Dillons

In 1821 La Mission was bought by Celestin Coudrin-Chiapella, born in New Orleans in 1774 and, as the estate notes, its first American owner. The Chiapellas enclosed the vineyard and built the wrought-iron gate that still guards the entrance, now listed as a historic monument, and La Mission won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in London in 1862. Jerome Chiapella sold the estate in 1884.

The modern era began in 1919, when the Bordeaux merchant Frederic Otto Woltner bought it. In 1926, with his sons, he installed enameled steel vats with glass-lined interiors, an early tool for controlling fermentation temperatures; Wikipedia credits his son Henri with the innovation and calls him a 'wine-maker genius.' Henri ran the estate until his death in October 1974, having overseen 50 vintages, and was followed by Francis Dewavrin, husband of one of his nieces.

Family discord led to a sale in 1983. Domaine Clarence Dillon, owner of Chateau Haut-Brion since 1935, completed the purchase on November 2, 1983, ending the old rivalry between the neighbors. The Dillons built a new vat house for the 1987 vintage, a new tasting room in 1996, and new cellars from 2007; the Grand Chai of Frontenac stone, designed from sketches by Prince Robert of Luxembourg, was inaugurated in 2009. A second wine, La Chapelle de la Mission Haut-Brion, has been made from younger vines since 1991.

2016: a paradox or a miracle

The estate's own account of 2016 is a story of reversals. Winter and spring were rainy and cooler than normal, yet flowering took place with what the team called an almost miraculous evenness. A long summer drought ended with rain in mid-September that helped the final ripening, and no rain disturbed the October harvest. Cool nights and warm days gave wines rich in color but fresh and fruity. 'Paradox or miracle of nature?' the technical sheet asks.

Picking ran from September 19 to October 4. The grand vin came out as 57.5% Merlot and 42.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, with no Cabernet Franc at all, a point Decanter's reviewer noted. It was aged in 78% new barrels and bottled from May 23 to 25, 2018, at 14% alcohol. The estate's own tasting note ends with an unusually direct claim: the 2016 is 'certainly the most complete and charming the chateau has made in a long time.'

The vineyard behind it covers nearly 21 hectares across Pessac and Leognan on stony soil, planted to 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot and 7% Cabernet Franc, according to Wikipedia, which puts average production of the grand vin at 6,000 to 7,000 cases a year.

Next to Haut-Brion, closer than ever

The 2016 impressed from the barrel. When the futures were released, Neal Martin had scored it 98 to 100 and wrote that, after a 2015 that flirted with perfection, the 2016 had 'that extra edge.' In bottle he gave it 99 for Vinous in January 2019, and closed his note with a question: is the 2016 up there with the 1955 or 1989? His answer was 'Nearly.'

Other critics were close behind. Lisa Perrotti-Brown of the Wine Advocate rated it 98+ in November 2018 and called it exquisitely elegant, with a drinking window of 2022 to 2054. Jeb Dunnuck gave 98, describing it as sexier and more charming than the more backward Haut-Brion. Decanter scored it 98, noting a low pH that gives tension, and James Suckling and Wine Spectator each gave 97.

The two Dillon neighbors are usually told apart by style. Writing on the Bordeaux Wine Blog after a tasting on March 30, 2017, Alex R. said that three times out of four he finds Haut-Brion's elegance beats La Mission's more brooding style, but that he had never tasted the two wines closer in style than in 2016.

Price and legacy

La Mission released its 2016 futures on May 31, 2017, at 336 euros a bottle ex-negociant, up 12% on the 2015, according to Wine Spectator, which said it was retailing in the U.S. for about $440. In London, a merchant offered the wine at 3,850 pounds for twelve bottles, which it said was a 12% rise in euros and a 20% rise in sterling.

In October 2026, two U.S. retailers were asking $425 and $439.99 for a single 750 ml bottle, close to the original U.S. futures price nearly a decade earlier.

La Mission has long been treated as more than its rank. Jancis Robinson calls it 'the quintessential insider's wine,' and Robert Parker gave it 100 points on six occasions, including the 2000, according to Wikipedia. In a 2008 London tasting of 51 vintages from 1953 to 2005, held to mark 25 years of Dillon ownership, Parker is quoted by the estate as saying he owned more bottles of La Mission than of any other wine in the world. In 2009 a London fine-wine exchange's price-based reworking of the 1855 classification ranked La Mission among the first growths.

The numbers

Vineyard

Nearly 21 ha in Pessac and Leognan; plantings 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc

Production

6,000-7,000 cases of grand vin in an average year; 2016 figure not published in the sources reviewed

2016 blend

57.5% Merlot, 42.5% Cabernet Sauvignon

Vinous

99 (Neal Martin, January 2019); 98-100 from barrel

Wine Advocate

98+ (Lisa Perrotti-Brown, November 2018)

Decanter

98

Jeb Dunnuck

98

James Suckling

97 (96-97 from barrel)

Wine Spectator

97

Wine Enthusiast

96, Cellar Selection

Timeline

1. 1540

   Arnaud de Lestonnac buys the plot that becomes La Mission and marries the sister of Haut-Brion's founder.

2. 1682

   Olive de Lestonnac's bequest passes to the Lazarist Priests of the Mission.

3. 1698

   The priests build the chapel of Notre-Dame d'Aubrion.

4. 1755

   The Duke of Richelieu, new governor of Guyenne, adopts La Mission as his table wine.

5. 1792

   Confiscated in the Revolution and sold to Martial-Victor Vaillant for 302,000 livres.

6. 1821

   New Orleans-born Celestin Coudrin-Chiapella buys the estate.

7. 1862

   Gold medal at the International Exhibition in London.

8. 1919

   Frederic Otto Woltner buys La Mission.

9. 1926

   The Woltners install glass-lined enameled steel fermentation vats.

10. 1953

    Classified in the Graves classification.

11. Oct 1974

    Henri Woltner dies after overseeing 50 vintages.

12. Nov 2, 1983

    Domaine Clarence Dillon, owner of Haut-Brion, completes the purchase.

13. 1991

    First vintage of the second wine, La Chapelle de la Mission Haut-Brion.

14. 2009

    The new Grand Chai, tasting room and cloister are inaugurated.

15. Oct 4, 2016

    The 2016 harvest, begun September 19, is completed.

16. May 31, 2017

    The 2016 futures are released at 336 euros ex-negociant.

17. May 23, 2018

    Bottling of the 2016 begins.

18. Jan 2019

    Neal Martin scores the bottled 2016 99 points for Vinous.

19. Oct 2026

    U.S. retailers ask $425 and $439.99 a bottle.

The world in 2016

• Jan 28, 2016

  The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.

• Mar 22, 2016

  Suicide bombings at Brussels airport and a metro station kill 35 people.

• Jun 23, 2016

  The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union.

• Jul 14, 2016

  A truck attack during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice kills 86 people.

• Aug 5, 2016

  The Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro, the first Games held in South America.

• Nov 2, 2016

  The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908.

• Nov 8, 2016

  Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion 2016 is number 72 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (49 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• La Mission's first owner was the brother-in-law of Haut-Brion's founder; the two estates were reunited under the Dillons in 1983.
• The estate takes its name from the Priests of the Mission, Lazarist clergy who owned it from 1682 until the Revolution.
• Its first American owner was born in New Orleans in 1774 and built a model ship, still used in miniature as the weathervane, to honor ties between France and the United States.
• The Woltners began writing the greatest vintages in gold letters in the chapel.
• The 2016 contains no Cabernet Franc, though the vineyard grows it.
• The estate's own tasting note calls the 2016 the most complete and charming La Mission in a long time.