Exclusive: Domaine Clarence Dillon buys Sean Thackrey’s ‘unparalleled’ wine library

Described as ‘one of the world’s largest private collections of wine texts’, the Sean Thackrey Library was built lovingly over many decades by the American winemaking legend who died aged 79 in May 2022.

Comprising more than 700 books and manuscripts dating back to the 6th century with dozens printed in the 16th century and earlier, the collection went on sale in April 2022 at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair through Sonoma-based rare book dealer Ben Kinmont.

The final price paid was not revealed, and the purchaser remained anonymous, leading to plenty of rumours over the past 12 months, but it was clear, as Kinmont told Wine Spectator leading up to the sale, that ‘any institution that acquires this library would distinguish itself as one of the most important places in the world for the study of wine history’.

I was as curious as everybody else as to where they would end up, and am so thrilled to say that this week I finally got to leaf through a few of these books I had read so much about, because this wonderful collection is now part of the extensive library on wine and gastronomy built by Prince Robert of Luxembourg, 4th generation and CEO of Domaine Clarence Dillon, held at Château Haut-Brion, 1855 1st Growth of Bordeaux.

‘This unparalleled collection represents a serious addition to the library at Haut-Brion,’ said Prince Robert. ‘It was important to Thackrey that the collection was bought in its entirety. The fact that it was going to a vineyard bought by American family in 1935, and that it would be held in Europe, where so many of these books were originally written, felt like an additional piece of symmetry’.

The books, which were delivered to Haut-Brion in January 2023 by Kinmont, will add further depth and breadth to a collection which already contains over 2,800 reference books, 310 menus of state dinners, 100 19th century wine lists from iconic restaurants such as Maxim’s and Hotel de Crillon, 40 hand-written private letters and manuscripts from personalities including Thomas Jefferson, Antonin Carême and Claude Monet, Japanese scrolls, and eight archives of original documents specifically covering the history of Château Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. These include registers of Haut-Brion harvests from the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and a handwritten letter by Count Joseph de Fumel, written in 1794 just weeks before he was guillotined during the French Revolution, in which he leaves instructions to the bailiff of the Haut-Brion estate, Sieur Giraud, on how to look after his vines, best dates to harvest, how many workers to employ, what rates to pay them, when to prune, and how to look after the château and its outbuildings ‘during my absence’.

The collection overall comprises works from 15 different languages around the theme of viticulture, wine and gastronomy, with the oldest piece, thanks to the recent acquisition, a 6th century papyrus receipt for vines, written in Egypt by Coptic Christians.

Thackrey was a largely self-taught winemaker, the son of a Hollywood scriptwriter (another coincidence, as  Prince Robert and his wife Julie Ongaro famously wrote several screenplays, two of which were optioned by Colombia Pictures). He often said that he consulted his collection of books as a guide to growing his own grapes and wine – Kinmont told me that the information he found in them, ‘gave Sean the confidence to go his own way’ – making it thrilling that I found another hidden treasure within one particular book on winemaking in England, published in 1670, called The Compleat Vineyard; a label from a bottle of Thackrey’s 1994 vintage of Orion, clearly used as a bookmark.

Other books that you can find, with or without wine label bookmarks, include an illuminated vellum manuscript depicting grape crushing dating back to the late 14th century, a 15th century edition of Arnaldus de Villanova’s De Vinis, and an extremely rare first edition of Agoston Haraszthy’s Grape Culture, a foundational text on American viticulture from a man known as the ‘father of Californian wine’ (you can read more about his life story here).

On setting out to create such an important reference library, Prince Robert is following in the footsteps of former owners of Château Haut-Brion, most notably Arnaud II de Pontac, who created one of the most important libraries of the age. On his death in 1605, he bequeathed his many books to his grand-nephew, Arnaud III of Pontac (the same man who would go on to open the Pontack’s Head in London in 1666). Unfortunately, Pontac’s library was sold to a bookseller in 1708 who dispersed his collection – although perhaps we can imagine that some of them are now returning home.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, another former owner of Haut-Brion between 1801 and 1804, was also a renowned bibliophile, as well as gastronome who hired Carême as his private chef, providing the link to the handful of extremely rare books in the library written by France’s first celebrity chef, who was responsible for much of the professionalisation of French cuisine in the early 1800s. Talleyrand was also foreign affairs minister under Napoléon Bonaparte and key to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which nearly doubled the size of the United States under then-President Thomas Jefferson.

‘We know that Jefferson, who would have known Talleyrand and who pushed for ratification of the deal in October 1803, had visited Haut-Brion, and remained a lover of its wines throughout his life,’ says Prince Robert. ‘This is an estate that has been witness to so many extraordinary moments, and it is this extensive history that gives this library such a singular legitimacy’.

Haut-Brion is currently undergoing an extensive renovation, working with architect Annabelle Selldorf, who has previously worked on, among other notable buildings, the extension of the Frick Collection in New York and the Luma Foundation’s Parc des Ateliers in Arles. The new buildings at Haut-Brion, which aim to be entirely carbon neutral, will not be open fully until 2026, by which time there will be a second library to house the Haut-Brion reference library, in addition to the current circular room with floor to ceiling bookshelves that houses the oldest books. At this point, the collection will be accessible to researchers by appointment.

Until the second library is completed, all recent editions, and the entire Thackrey collection, are held in temperature-controlled archive rooms, overseen by heritage manager and historian Alain Puginier.