Château Climens

Château Climens

Château Climens is the leading estate of Barsac, ranked Premier Cru Classé in the 1855 Classification and known for three centuries as the Lord of Barsac. Its roughly thirty hectares sit on the highest point of the Barsac plateau, on red sand and clay over a bed of fractured limestone — the asteriated limestone that distinguishes Barsac from neighbouring Sauternes and gives its wines a lift and a nervy freshness rather than pure weight. The estate is planted entirely to Sémillon, unusually for the region, where Sauvignon Blanc is almost always blended in.

Everything at Climens is built around botrytis, the noble rot that concentrates the grapes on the vine in the damp autumn mornings created where the cold Ciron meets the warmer Garonne. Pickers pass through the vineyard repeatedly over several weeks, taking only berries at the right stage, and the yields that result are famously tiny. Bérénice Lurton, who ran the estate from 1992, converted it to biodynamic farming and had it certified in 2014, and sold it in 2022 to Jean-Hubert Moueix, of the family behind Pétrus. In weak years the grand vin is declassified entirely. The wine that does appear is dense and honeyed but cut by acidity, and famously long-lived.