Chateau Haut-Brion's Prince Robert of Luxembourg's Latest Venture
Prince Robert of Luxembourg, the 42 year old managing director of Domaine Clarence Dillon, oversees, and owns along with his family, two of the most prestigious Premier Grand Cru estates in Bordeaux: Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion. The Prince sat down with Luxist to discuss his strategy to expand his family's business by producing a more affordable wine on a larger scale. His newest creation is "Clarendelle", which he hopes will be the first super premium-branded Bordeaux wine.
Named in honor of his maternal great-grandfather, Clarence Dillon, a New York banker who bought Chateau Haut-Brion in 1935, Clarendelle is offered at a lower price point than the wines produced by the Prince's well known estates---$15 to $25 a bottle compared to well over $300 a bottle for Chateau Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. Domaine Clarence Dillon is able to accomplish that by buying wine from dozens of other Bordeaux winemakers and blending it together. Only a small portion of the wine comes from the Domaine Clarence Dillon estates.
Luxist: Tell us why you are buying wine from other Bordeaux winemakers, rather than grapes?
Prince Robert: There's a great advantage to buying wine, rather than grapes. Buying wine gives us more quality control because we already have a finished product. We are not buying grapes because we would not know how they will evolve. The wines that are purchased for Clarendelle, represents the same grape varietals used for the Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion wines.
Luxist: Tell us about how the blending process will work with Clarendelle wines?
Prince Robert: The winemaking experts from Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion are responsible for the blending process. We are doing the same exercise we do when we make Chateau Haut-Brion every year. The winemakers decide which ones should be blended together to make . We acquire some of the best wines from the Bordeaux region and use the skills of our entire blending team to make wines in the style of our estate wines.
Luxist: How large is Clarendelle's production?
Prince Robert: The 2005 Clarendelle, which hit store shelves in 2007, was a production of 750,000 bottles (including red and white wines). This is nearly twice the size of the production of Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion combined. Some of our La Mission Haut-Brion and Chateau Haut-Brion white wines are only produced in tiny quantities of 500 to 600 cases (6,000 bottles). We produce about 1,000 cases of our second white wine from both of those estates, called "La Clarte de Haut-Brion. These are tiny production wines. In addition to the quality, the rarity of these wines makes them very sought after. That is why our four estate wines are among the most expensive wines in the world.
Luxist: Your family has always produced wines exclusively at the top end. What are your long-term plans for Clarendelle?
Prince Robert: We will continue to produce at the top end, but I also I want to create a super premium brand from Bordeaux that goes beyond the chateaux. Clarendelle started exceedingly small. We are growing. We are only going to be limited by the quality of wine that we find. We want to stay focused and do this right. It is a long-term strategy for us. It has grown much more rapidly than we anticipated, but we won't be taking a risk with our image and reputation by creating a sub-par wine. The wine needs to have the same style and complexity as our estate wines. Chateau Haut-Brion has a 500 year old track record. Today, our biggest growth market in the U.S. remains the super premium brand segment, but within the top 100 brands in that segment, there is not one brand from Bordeaux. So we aim to be the first. No one from Bordeaux has yet had the production level to make it to the top 100.
Luxist: Tell us about your new wholesale company.
Prince Robert: Our new whoelsale company, Clarence Dillon Wines, represents some of the finest Bordeaux estates around the world. This is not the first time we have been in the wholesale business. We used to have a wholesale business that sold wines all over the world many years ago. We realized that even with a small sales force, we can reach far flung countries far more easier than we were able to during the past. Many new markets have opened to us and more are opening up every day. The number of brands that are well known company names that people can retain has shrunk. There's going to be contiuned concentration within this sector. We want to be one of the major signatures of quality for great wines coming out of Bordeaux.
Luxist: What are your goals?
Prince Robert: Our goal is quality. Being a family-owned business, we can take a long-term view. We don't have someone breathing down our necks. Our only family position is to try to make the best possible wines we could every year. We can't take a risk as far as quality is concerned, so we will take our time.
Luxist: It will be nice for customers to walk into a wine store and find $20 to $25 bottle of wine with a name on it like yours that represents quality. Who wouldn't want to buy it?
Prince Robert: People who want to have very New World-style wines will not buy it---they want want fruitful and concentrated wines. We are producing more complex, stylized wine int the style of the classic Haut-Brion under a new label. So there is a traditional bent to it. Obviously, our blending team's palettes have been formed by the tastings they have been doing for La Mission and Haut-Brion over the years. If you are looking for a complex, elegant, classic Bordeaux wine with a promise of quality from a top producer, Clarendelle is for you.
Clarendelle is available at leading wine stores including New York's Sherry-Lehmann and KD Wines. On the Internet, Clarendelle can be found on wine-searcher.com.
Prince Robert: The winemaking experts from Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion are responsible for the blending process. We are doing the same exercise we do when we make Chateau Haut-Brion every year. The winemakers decide which ones should be blended together to make . We acquire some of the best wines from the Bordeaux region and use the skills of our entire blending team to make wines in the style of our estate wines.
Luxist: How large is Clarendelle's production?
Prince Robert: The 2005 Clarendelle, which hit store shelves in 2007, was a production of 750,000 bottles (including red and white wines). This is nearly twice the size of the production of Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion combined. Some of our La Mission Haut-Brion and Chateau Haut-Brion white wines are only produced in tiny quantities of 500 to 600 cases (6,000 bottles). We produce about 1,000 cases of our second white wine from both of those estates, called "La Clarte de Haut-Brion. These are tiny production wines. In addition to the quality, the rarity of these wines makes them very sought after. That is why our four estate wines are among the most expensive wines in the world.
Luxist: Your family has always produced wines exclusively at the top end. What are your long-term plans for Clarendelle?
Prince Robert: We will continue to produce at the top end, but I also I want to create a super premium brand from Bordeaux that goes beyond the chateaux. Clarendelle started exceedingly small. We are growing. We are only going to be limited by the quality of wine that we find. We want to stay focused and do this right. It is a long-term strategy for us. It has grown much more rapidly than we anticipated, but we won't be taking a risk with our image and reputation by creating a sub-par wine. The wine needs to have the same style and complexity as our estate wines. Chateau Haut-Brion has a 500 year old track record. Today, our biggest growth market in the U.S. remains the super premium brand segment, but within the top 100 brands in that segment, there is not one brand from Bordeaux. So we aim to be the first. No one from Bordeaux has yet had the production level to make it to the top 100.
Luxist: Tell us about your new wholesale company.
Prince Robert: Our new whoelsale company, Clarence Dillon Wines, represents some of the finest Bordeaux estates around the world. This is not the first time we have been in the wholesale business. We used to have a wholesale business that sold wines all over the world many years ago. We realized that even with a small sales force, we can reach far flung countries far more easier than we were able to during the past. Many new markets have opened to us and more are opening up every day. The number of brands that are well known company names that people can retain has shrunk. There's going to be contiuned concentration within this sector. We want to be one of the major signatures of quality for great wines coming out of Bordeaux.
Luxist: What are your goals?
Prince Robert: Our goal is quality. Being a family-owned business, we can take a long-term view. We don't have someone breathing down our necks. Our only family position is to try to make the best possible wines we could every year. We can't take a risk as far as quality is concerned, so we will take our time.
Luxist: It will be nice for customers to walk into a wine store and find $20 to $25 bottle of wine with a name on it like yours that represents quality. Who wouldn't want to buy it?
Prince Robert: People who want to have very New World-style wines will not buy it---they want want fruitful and concentrated wines. We are producing more complex, stylized wine int the style of the classic Haut-Brion under a new label. So there is a traditional bent to it. Obviously, our blending team's palettes have been formed by the tastings they have been doing for La Mission and Haut-Brion over the years. If you are looking for a complex, elegant, classic Bordeaux wine with a promise of quality from a top producer, Clarendelle is for you.
Clarendelle is available at leading wine stores including New York's Sherry-Lehmann and KD Wines. On the Internet, Clarendelle can be found on wine-searcher.com.
