Château Haut-Brion

This multi-lingual site offers much more than a shop window for this venerable Bordeaux Château. For those with a serious passion for the Château, Bordeaux, or wine-making in general, it really is a superb resource. It has the most comprehensive almanac of a year in the vineyard that we have seen on the Web, as well as copious and detailed information on the art and science of wine.



Established in the 16th Century, Haut-Brion is a true aristocrat of the wine world, and as such, their website is a historical treasure-trove of information about the Château and its wines, but it is also a surprisingly lively environment, with a daily news section and active discussion forums. There is a considerable body of high-quality information on this site. It is full of very readable articles, often illustrated with photographs, charts and diagrams.



Navigation is rather inconsistent. The opening screen has a navigation bar at the top of the page, which leads to the main sub-sections. Within these, some screens mimic the navigation bar, others use frames and offer different navigational options. Clicking the Home button sometimes takes you home, but at other times takes you to the Wines sub-section: all rather confusing, though not unworkable.


SPECIAL FEATURES


Wines is one of the navigation buttons on the home page of this site. It offers excellent introductions to each of the Château's eight wines, but Wines is also used to access many of the site's most interesting features which are not linked to the home page by any other route. The opening screen displays a list of the Château's wines. Clicking any of these will present a very detailed and illustrated presentation on that wine: such as grapes used, vinification, and tasting notes.



Along the bottom of the screen (in a separate frame) is a navigation bar to some fascinating sub-sections of Wines. These include:

Seasons A delightful pictorial journey through the year in the life of the vineyard. For example, click on April to see the budding of the vines and formation of new leaves; click on September to see the harvest and sorting of the grapes.

Vintage Detailed reports on the vintage conditions (date of harvest, rainfall and sunshine hours, etc.) for every year from the current vintage all the way back to 1899!

Chais This section is the immensely detailed and educational story of how a wine is made (Chais is French for Cellar). Specifically, it is how the wines of Haut-Brion are made of course, but this beautifully illustrated guide explains every step from receiving the grapes to the bottling line.

Forum Messages to the Forum are welcome in French or English, though the majority are in English. Here fans or scholars of these famous wines can share their passion and ask questions. The Château will happily answer questions such as ‘Should I decant my 1983?' or ‘How much red wine is made in a year?'



OTHER FEATURES


There is a News section which contains latest news about the Château and Bordeaux wines. The site promises that soon there will be a list of worldwide stockists of their wines ; both retail merchants and restaurants. A Links page provides a list of good links to wine-related sites.