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Located in the heart of the Pauillac vineyard, Château Duhart-Milon owes its creation to a privateer under Louis XV who retired to the town's port and was named Sieur Duhart. From the 18th century onwards, Milon's wines served as an annuity for the seigneur de Lafite and was at the time considered a Second vin.
The Château Duhart-Milon would be named Quatrième Grand Cru Classé in the famous 1855 classification for the Paris Universal Exhibition.
In 1962, it was acquired by the Domaines Baron de Rothschild who were at the helm of its illustrious neighbor, Château Lafite Rothschild.
The Château Duhart-Milon watches over a 75-hectare vineyard situated on fine gravel soils with a limestone subsoil. The grape varieties are 67% Cabernet Sauvignon and 33% Merlot. The wines are aged for 14 months in French oak barrels, 50% of which are new.
The estate produces a Second wine, Moulin de Duhart.
The wines of Château Duhart-Milon are finely structured, offering plenty of concentration and freshness while letting beautiful fruity and spicy notes express themselves.
The vintage
On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the acquisition of Château Lafite by the Rothschild family, our teams had to face up to some major challenges in the face of a capricious climate. From December to July, incessant rain favored the development of mildew and the risk of hail. Summer didn't really begin until mid-July, with very hot weather, sometimes extreme, which helped to restore the vineyard to a healthy state and set us on the road to a great vintage. In comparison with the Lafite terroir, 2018 was more Sec for the Duhart-Milon Cabernet Sauvignons, but more clayey for the Merlots, which had the effect of two different evolutions in the face of the climate. The Cabernets Sauvignons suffered from a lack of water during the summer, but the rains of August 28 and September 5 brought the situation back into balance and ensured good ripening of our grapes. As for the more clayey Merlots, our terroir proved particularly well-suited to the vintage, producing some of the finest Merlots ever seen at Duhart, a promise for our Grand Vin, which always contains a high proportion of Merlot.
Location
The Pauillac appellation is located on the Rive gauche of the Gironde estuary, some 40 km north of Bordeaux. Benefiting from the influence of the estuary and a great diversity of soils originating from the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, Pauillac combines exceptional climatic and geological conditions to produce great wines.
Terroir
The vineyards of Château Duhart-Milon extend almost in a single block on the west side of Château Lafite Rothschild, on the Milon hillside which extends the Carruades de Lafite plateau. The estate comprises 76 ha of vines. The soils are fine gravel mixed with Aeolian sands on a tertiary limestone subsoil.
Vinification
Château Duhart-Milon is vinified using traditional Bordeaux winemaking methods.
The grapes are meticulously sorted and then, depending on their parcel of origin, placed in cement or stainless steel tanks for alcoholic fermentation. Light pumping-over is carried out during fermentation to optimize Extraction. Total maceration time is approximately 20 days.
Following malolactic fermentation, the wines are filled into French oak barrels made by Tonnellerie des Domaines to Pauillac. The barrels are individually tasted in December to ensure a strict selection of the finest wines. Following this selection, the wine is blended and then filled into oak barrels (50% new wood).
Tasting
Attractive dark red color with black highlights.
The nose is still closed, but shows all the characteristics of great aromatic potential. Depth, complexity and woodiness are already perfectly integrated.
On the palate, the attack is soft and silky. Then, gradually and with the same smoothness, the wine invades the mouth for a long time to reveal its fresh character, typical of the late Duhart-Milon terroir. The wine is very dense, with tight, delicate tannins and a long aftertaste. All the ingredients for a great future.
