Château Clarisse bets on Chardonnay
"Chardonnay is a global brand, everyone knows it." In Puisseguin, Château Clarisse plans to devote more than 30% of its planted area to white varieties.
Château Clarisse is building its growth around Chardonnay: Burgundy's signature grape, absent from the Bordeaux rulebook. The wine is released under the Vin de France designation.
"We're now at our fifth harvest. We never bottled the 2022, we weren't satisfied with it." Didier Le Calvez moves forward with method and exacting standards. A career hotelier now in his seventies, he has poured both his heart and his commercial instinct into Château Clarisse, the property he acquired in 2009 with his wife Olivia. He knows exactly what he wants, and gives himself the means to achieve it. "Wine, for me, is a passion, not an indulgence," he says with a smile, dispelling a few well-worn clichés. For his reds, he is betting on Cabernet Franc, looking closely at what Ausone and Cheval-Blanc are doing, and restructuring his vineyards across Puisseguin Saint-Émilion and Castillon-Côtes de Bordeaux.
And so the idea took root: to develop a range of white wines…
