Winegrowers’ Portraits Saint-Estèphe
From virgin and poor lands, the pioneers of the interior and from all over Europe bended over its cradle. Far from the feudal model intrinsic to the other viticultural regions of Bordeaux, the Médoc develops in modernity during the 17th and 18th centuries, leaving an important testimony: a hierarchy of the wines. This is evidenced by the 1855 classification, that of the Cru Bourgeois since 2008, the ranking of 44 Crus Artisans alongside appellation wines.
In this environment, Château Clauzet, currently owned by Baron Maurice Velge, is born from a dream. President of Antwerp, his home city and the 1993 cultural capital of Europe, fond of hunting, arts, culture and wine like his father, he decides to invest in the vineyard of Saint-Estèphe. He could have bought a classed growth and based on fame and an idealized image, but he preferred to take an interest in the best terroirs of the appellation. A challenge, a motivation, aiming at doing better every day, at understanding the constraints to turn them into qualities and to give a genuine personality to his wines.
In 1997 he purchases in this communal appellation, the most Northern of the Médoc, two exceptional and contrasted terroirs, two Crus Bourgeois Supérieurs: 8 hectares for Château Clauzet and 2 hectares for Château de Côme. Located between the chateaus Montrose, Meney, Marbuzet, Phélan Ségur, Canon-Ségur and Cos d’Estournel, both vineyards now total nearly 30 hectares, with two complementary personalities.
Closer to the river, Château Clauzet is settled on deep gravelly soils in which the vines go and find the water tables 12 meters below. The different geologic layers provide complexity and a nuanced aromatic range. On the contrary Château de Côme, stemming from clay and limestone soils, offer finer and silkier tannins in the mouth thanks to its half-Cabernet Sauvignon, half Merlot blend, and to its typicity.
Little by little, Maurice Velge managed to increase his domain and his fame thanks to the quality of his wines and the implication of José Bueno, formerly Cellar master in the estates Baron Philippe de Rothschild. Since 2008, œnologist Eric Boissenot also gives his advices for these domains managed in a global and scrupulous vision of the vine with very controlled yields (40 hl/ha) and measured ageing.
Balance of the wines, balance of life between Belgium and Bordeaux, where Saint-Estèphe remains the place of a passion for the Baron: two quality wines signed by their terroirs.
Château Clauzet
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