The only property from outside the Medoc to be included in the 1855 Classification, Haut-Brion's viticultural history can be traced back further than its Medoc First Growth counterparts. Samuel Pepys even mentions it in his diaries. Situated in what is now Pessac-Leognan, the property finds itself now in the suburbs of the ever-encroaching city of Bordeaux. After falling into a state of disrepair the estate was purchased in 1935 by Clarence Dillon, an American financier, since when it has enjoyed a steady and continual resurgence to a position of pre-eminence. Dillon's great-grandson, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, now runs the estate.

1964 with a warm spring, even flowering and a warm dry summer the French Ministry of Agriculture had to declare the vintage would be great, maybe one of the greatest. But on October 8 came the rain and it didn't stop for weeks. As ever the one picking early mainly right bank did well but not always the case in the left bank.