53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc

Food pairings: Dry-aged ribeye, venison, duck with berry sauce, herb-crusted lamb, wild mushroom or truffle dishes, and Comté or Saint-Nectaire.

Winemaking: The 2016 was harvested from September 26 to October 18. Each parcel is sorted and vinified separately in temperature-controlled vats with gentle pump-overs, and the blend is built through months of tastings. The wine aged in fine-grained French oak barrels, about 55% new. The team was led by director Véronique Sanders and winemaker Gabriel Vialard, and 2016 was the last vintage of consultant Denis Dubourdieu.

Vineyards and terroir: Haut-Bailly lies on one of the highest ridges of the left bank, with sand mixed with clay and gravel over a subsoil of falun, a shelly marine sediment. A block of century-old vines, co-planted with six grape varieties by Alcide Bellot des Minières, is still farmed today.

Family: Vines were already grown here in 1461, and Firmin Le Bailly gave the estate its name around 1630. Alcide Bellot des Minières bought it in 1872, and the Sanders family owned it from 1955. American banker Robert G. Wilmers bought Haut-Bailly in 1998. After his death in 2017 his family continued his work, building new cellars that opened in 2021.

In the pictures: The château at Haut-Bailly (photo: Ken Case, 2006, public domain), and an engraving of the château from the 1898 edition of Cocks & Féret's "Bordeaux et ses vins" (CC0).