The 'sun has come out' for Bordeaux

London

THE quality of the 2015 vintage being presented to merchants over the past month makes it feel like the "the sun has come out" for the Bordeaux region, according to Robert Wilmers, M&T Bank Corp chairman and chief executive officer and owner of Chateau Haut Bailly, a grand cru classe wine estate south of the city.

"It's a pleasure for the psyche," the US financier said in an interview on April 4 in the salon of his 19th-century chateau overlooking vines, which were just starting to bud. The estate, which he bought 18 years ago, lies on sandy-gravel slopes just outside the town of Leognan, part of the Pessac-Leognan appellation.