Château Haut Selve
Meeting with the Lesgourgues family, winegrowers-entrepreneurs, epicureans and enthusiasts
Château Haut Selve (Graves) is a young property of 50 hectares, located in the Graves. It was created ex-nihilo in 1991 by the Lesgourgues family. Seduced by the beautiful potential of this terroir they acquired this land at the time occupied exclusively by a forest and embarked on the beautiful adventure of creating a vineyard. Even if it seems a little crazy to start from nothing to create a vineyard there is a great advantage because « we start off with a virgin terroir devoid of any treatment, a healthy soil ».
As for its history, even though during the acquisition there was only one forest, this land had been planted with vines in the 19th century. However, the vineyard was completely destroyed by phylloxera in 1870 and then abandoned.
V.d.V.: What is the signature of the wines of Château Haut Selve? What makes it possible to recognize them in blind tasting? It just so happens that we recently did a blind tasting of various Graves 2014 with our oenologist!
Our red wines offer a lot of finesse, elegance and a gourmet side / pleasure.We have worked hard on this notion of «gluttony» from the beginning.We did a lot of work on cooperage, on vinification … we want notes rather toasted but without saturating the fruit with the oak. Our red wines are gourmet, fine, elegant, straight and offer fresh fruit.The finish of the mouth are quite assertive, complex.
We have also refined the style of our white wines by seeking more balance with a precisely dosed acidity. 30% Sémillon is always blended in order to bring fat.We are also very attentive to the risks of oxidation to keep the freshness of the fruit and its primary aromas. 50% of the wine is aged in stainless steel tanks and 50% in barrels (100% new). At Chateau Haut Selve we develop wines that are not as marked by vinification as the Pessac-Léognan but without the Sauvignon being too acidic, without complexity. The blend is 30% Sémillon, 60% Sauvignon blanc and 10% Sauvignon gris.The latter brings small notes of exotic fruit and complexity.
In the end, we get gourmet, pleasant wines… wines that look like us !
V.d.V.: What is wine for you?
For me there are two dimensions in wine.The first is the ‘sacred’ dimension (in the religious sense). It is a product that has a great place in Christianity.
The second dimension is pleasure and the art of living in the French style. The wine is an integral part of the gastronomy in general and more particularly of the «gourmet meal of the French»… that France made it into the heritage of the humanity (UNESCO) in 2010. In my opinion, the place of wine in gastronomy is even stronger in France than in other major European wineproducing countries.
There is magic in this product! Wine must remain synonymous with sharing, conviviality, pleasure and not technic.
V.d.V.: Do you have any plans for the property?
Yes, the vintage of 2015 which is our 20th vintage.We will put it on the market during Vinexpo Bordeaux 2017. It is a very beautiful vintage!
To celebrate this event a special packaging will be created. A series of events in France and abroad will be led to taste or re-taste Château Haut Selve. There is clearly a beautiful upscale release!
On this 20th anniversary label you will still find the gates, the sculptures of Castor & Pollux, but with a different color code, a numbering of bottles, shorter capsules…