Château Haut-Brion

The oldest of the First Growths in reputation and the only one beyond the Médoc, Château Haut-Brion was already sold under its own name in seventeenth-century London — the first estate to understand that place could be a brand. Its vineyards now sit encircled by the city of Bordeaux itself, on the deep gravels of Pessac, and have belonged to the Dillon family since 1935, today under Prince Robert of Luxembourg. Merlot plays a fuller role here than at the other Firsts, giving a wine of smoke, warm brick and extraordinary texture that can shade its Médoc peers for sheer complexity. The second wine is Le Clarence de Haut-Brion, and the estate's tiny production of white — Haut-Brion Blanc — is among the most sought-after dry whites on earth.