Home › Wine Notes › Vieux Château Gaubert (Vignobles Dominique Haverlan)
Vieux Château Gaubert, Graves Rouge 1999
RedFrance1999
By Daniel Min · Tasted 2020-01-16 · Published 2026-09-19 · Updated 2026-09-19
At a glance
In one line
2.5/5 — lower than Vivino's 3.9 average · world avg price US$33 · A small Graves château that Dominique Haverlan bought as a ruin in 1988 and rebuilt from the ground up.
No critic scores registered on Vivino
Market note: The last listed retail price at wine.com was US$25.99 (now sold out, checked Sept 2026) — a useful reference point. The 1999 vintage is essentially out of normal distribution now; what remains trickles through auctions and small retail lots.
Father's note — Daniel Min
Original author of the notes“Oak, wood, cedar, cigar.”
What I learned today: even in a glass the fruit has left, the wood stays and tells how long the bottle has traveled.
Wednesday, while I was getting ready to open, Master Seo sat at the end of the counter with a leather notebook open. A brown notebook, its corners worn round. I've seen him write in it now and then, but I don't know what he writes. Today he closed it and called me over. "I'm opening an old bottle."
The cork came out half crumbled. He held the bottle down and slowly drew out the rest, then strained out the bits as he poured me a glass. Brick red. Oak, wood, cedar, and cigar. I put my nose in three times looking for fruit, and all three times it was wood. Honestly, I was disappointed.
That disappointment brought a night back. Deep winter when I was twenty-one, a Thursday night after an early sunset. After the big bottles had gone by in turn, Father stood the next one up in its cloth. The table that had glowed with red fruit went suddenly quiet, like a study. Father put his nose in three times. Just like me. Then he set the glass down without a word. I don't know the bottle's name.
The notebook has only four words too: "Oak, wood, cedar, cigar." No "good," no "bad." Two and a half stars, the lowest of that night's bottles. Father didn't explain his disappointment; he wrote down only what he smelled.
Looking at the empty glass, Master Seo said, "It's a bottle past its time. What you smelled is right." Then he opened the leather notebook again. What he wrote, I still don't know. What I learned today: even in a glass the fruit has left, the wood stays and tells how long the bottle has traveled.
What this wine is
Graves is often called Bordeaux's oldest wine region. The gravelly soil that gives the region its name — washed down by Ice Age glaciers — was already under vine when the Médoc to the north was still unusable marshland. When Eleanor of Aquitaine's marriage to Henry II of England opened a trade route between the two countries, Graves wine was the first Bordeaux to reach medieval England. Around 1400, the man who would become Pope Clement V founded Château Pape Clément, Bordeaux's first-ever named château. And in the 1855 classification, Château Haut-Brion was the only Graves estate to win First Growth status. Graves led Bordeaux until Dutch engineers drained the Médoc's marshes in the mid-17th century and the region's center of gravity shifted north.
Vieux Château Gaubert is a much more recent story set inside that old appellation. After the last descendant of the merchant Gaubert family died, the mid-18th-century residence — designed by architect Gabriel Durand — and its outbuildings were at risk of disappearing into a housing development. Dominique Haverlan, who came from generations of winegrowers, bought the ruined property in 1988 and pushed through what's been described as a "pharaonic" project, rebuilding the château and the vineyards at the same time. The result put Vieux Château Gaubert among the leading names of Graves (Haverlan was named Bordeaux's 2022 "winemaker of the year" by the Guide Hachette). This bottle is from 1999, still early in that rebuilding era.
Worth noting: Château de la Brède, birthplace of the philosopher Montesquieu, sits within the same Graves appellation. Montesquieu himself was, by his own 1755 letters, a landowner who took his grape harvest and wine sales seriously — but no direct connection to Vieux Château Gaubert is confirmed.
What the world says
For the 1999 vintage alone, only 17 people have rated it on Vivino — too few for an average to display (flagged "BelowThreshold"). Across every vintage the label averages 3.9 from 1,228 ratings — 137th of 159 labels from this winery, and roughly 11.53 millionth of 12.35 million wines worldwide. Among those 17 ratings for 1999, the split is 9 threes, 6 fours and 2 twos — mostly "decent Bordeaux" territory. No critic scores are on file.
The flavor keywords lead with an oak group — oak, tobacco, coffee — at 58 mentions, followed by black fruit like blackberry and blackcurrant (37) and an earthy group of leather and smoke (29). Structure: tannin 4.5/5, acidity 4.4 — a classic profile built for long ageing.
"Still beautiful for its age at nearly 20 years old." — Vivino review, Nov 2018, 4.0 stars
"Loads going on with this. Pronounced tobacco, leather, vanilla, prunes and figs, with cherry and blackberry still coming through." — Vivino review, May 2018, 4.5 stars
Other reviewers generally scored it generously, describing a wine that was "still alive" 17–20 years in. I opened mine one or two years further along than that.
How I drank it
16 January 2020, 2.5 stars. My note reads just four words: "Oak, wood, cedar, cigar." That night was a party with two double magnums in play — it opened with Louis Roederer Brut Premier (4.0), moved to a double magnum of Martelet de Cherisey Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru 'Hameau de Blagny' 2016 (4.5) and a double magnum of Arnaud Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin 2017 (4.0), then this Graves, followed by Domaine Saint-Damien Gigondas 2014 (3.5) and Antinori Solaia 2012 (5.0). Of the six bottles, this 1999 scored lowest.
Short as it is, the note is clear enough: when the flavor profile is all oak, wood, cedar and cigar — tertiary notes — with no fruit mentioned at all, that's a bottle 21 years in that has tipped toward oxidation. Other Vivino reviewers wrote that the wine was "still beautiful" at 17–20 years; the bottle I had may have crossed that window, or simply been stored differently. Compared with other pieces on this site, this sits below Mouton Cadet's 3.0 and Tarapacá's 3.5 — among the lowest scores covered here so far. That's not a guess about my mood: it's the fact that this was the only one of the six bottles that night to drop below 3.0.
Vivino community data
1999 vintage rating distribution (17 ratings, average n/a)
| 5★ | 0 (0%) | |
| 4★ | 6 (35%) | |
| 3★ | 9 (53%) | |
| 2★ | 2 (12%) | |
| 1★ | 0 (0%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Oak | 58 | oak 15 · tobacco 9 · coffee 8 · cedar 6 · vanilla 5 |
| Black fruit | 37 | blackberry 8 · blackcurrant 8 · black fruit 5 · plum 5 · black plum 3 |
| Earth | 29 | leather 13 · smoke 5 · earthy 3 · minerals 3 · tobacco leaf 2 |
| Spice | 13 | pepper 4 · cinnamon 3 · bay leaf 2 · mint 2 · licorice 1 |
| Red fruit | 8 | cherry 5 · raspberry 2 · cranberry 1 |
| Dried fruit | 5 | prune 3 · fig 2 |
| Vegetal | 4 | tomato 2 · bell pepper 1 · straw 1 |
Structure: Acidity 4.4/5 · Intensity 4.3/5 · Tannin 4.5/5 · Sweetness 1.5/5
Average by vintage (all vintages: 1228 ratings, average 3.9)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 4.1 | 105 |
| 2003 | 3.5 | 37 |
| 2005 | 3.9 | 120 |
| 2006 | 3.7 | 57 |
| 2008 | 3.8 | 40 |
| 2009 | 3.9 | 126 |
| 2010 | 4.0 | 231 |
| 2012 | 4.0 | 52 |
| 2014 | 3.9 | 43 |
| 2015 | 3.9 | 95 |
| 2016 | 3.6 | 33 |
| 2018 | 4.0 | 60 |
Other wines Father scored 2.5 →
Read next
Swipe for more →
Tasted the same dayAntinori, Tenuta Tignanello 'Solaia' 2012
Italy · Tuscany★★★★★
Tasted the same dayDomaine Saint-Damien, Gigondas Vieilles Vignes 'La Louisiane' 2014
France · Rhône★★★½☆
Tasted the same dayArnaud Mortet, Gevrey-Chambertin 2017
France · Burgundy★★★★☆
Same producerChâteau Mont-Pérat, Bordeaux Rouge 2016
France · Bordeaux★★★☆☆
Similar styleDomaine de la Pinte Trousseau Arbois 2018
France★★★★½
Similar styleChâteau La Nerthe Cuvée des Cadettes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1996
France · Rhône★★★★★
Similar styleChâteau La Lagune Haut-Médoc 1970
France · Bordeaux★★★★★
Similar styleDugat-Py Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes 2005
France · Burgundy★★★★☆
Same grapeBlack Stallion Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
United States · Napa★★★★☆
Same grapeStag's Leap Wine Cellars, S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 (Napa Valley)
United States · Napa★★★★½Same grapeOrin Swift, Mercury Head Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
United States · Napa★★★★½
Same grapeOrin Swift, Palermo Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
United States · Napa★★★★☆More from Bordeaux, France
Swipe for more →
BordeauxChâteau La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc 2018
★★★★☆BordeauxChâteau La Lagune Haut-Médoc 1970
★★★★★
BordeauxChâteau Coutet, Barsac Premier Grand Cru Classé 2015
★★★★★
BordeauxChâteau Dassault Saint-Émilion Grand Cru (Grand Cru Classé) 1995
★★★★☆
BordeauxChâteau Olivier, Pessac-Léognan Blanc 2016 (Grand Cru Classé de Graves)
★★★½☆
BordeauxChâteau Cheval Blanc, Le Petit Cheval 2004
★★★★★BordeauxChâteau Mont-Pérat, Bordeaux Rouge 2016
★★★☆☆
BordeauxChâteau La Pierrière, Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux 2016
★★★☆☆
BordeauxChâteau Rieussec, Sauternes 2010
★★★★½
BordeauxChâteau d'Yquem 2008
★★★★☆Explore
Bottles Father gave five stars
Only the wines Father scored a perfect 5
→
Wines in manga, film and history
Bottles that show up in manga, film and history
→
Wines you can buy at the supermarket
Wines actually bought at the supermarket
→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Vieux Château Gaubert Graves Rouge 1999?
A Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend from a château in Graves, Bordeaux, that Dominique Haverlan bought as a ruin in 1988 and rebuilt. Vivino: label-wide average 3.9 from 1,228 ratings; the 1999 vintage has only 17 ratings, too few for a displayed average.
How much does it cost?
World average pending on Wine-Searcher. The last listed retail price at wine.com was US$25.99 (now sold out, checked Sept 2026).
What food pairs well with it?
Vivino users suggest beef, lamb, poultry and game (deer, etc.). With tannin at 4.5/5, it wants rich red meat.
Why is my score (2.5) lower than other reviews?
Other Vivino reviews describe the wine as "still beautiful" 17–20 years in, but the bottle I opened at 21 years showed no fruit at all — only oak, wood, cedar and cigar. The note is short, so I've kept the write-up to the facts, but this being the lowest-scoring bottle of five I opened that night speaks for itself.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data
- Vignobles Haverlan official — Vieux Château Gaubert
- Oenotourisme — Vieux Château Gaubert (Dominique Haverlan's 1988 acquisition)
- Wikipedia — Graves (wine region)
- wine.com — Vieux Château Gaubert Graves Rouge 1999
Read next
Swipe for more →
Tasted the same dayAntinori, Tenuta Tignanello 'Solaia' 2012
Italy · Tuscany★★★★★Tasted the same dayDomaine Saint-Damien, Gigondas Vieilles Vignes 'La Louisiane' 2014
France · Rhône★★★½☆Tasted the same dayArnaud Mortet, Gevrey-Chambertin 2017
France · Burgundy★★★★☆Same producerChâteau Mont-Pérat, Bordeaux Rouge 2016
France · Bordeaux★★★☆☆Similar styleDomaine de la Pinte Trousseau Arbois 2018
France★★★★½Similar style