Château La Clotte 2015

Located at the entrance to the town of Saint-Émilion, with a historical watchtower in the midst of its vines, Château La Clotte is one of the most beautiful sites on the Right Bank.  It is situated on the prime land of Saint-Émilion - the limestone plateau.  The word clotte means grotto in the Gascon language.  It refers to the impressive underground limestone cellars located underneath the estate.  Before wine made Saint-Émilion famous, it was better known as a source of limestone used for building mansions.  If one is impressed by the beautiful sight of chateaux built with limestone extracted from underground, it would be an equally impressive sight if one has the chance to step into the caves that are still underneath Saint-Émilion today.  For the caves to be usable as cellars, access through natural openings to above-ground is essential as the caves tend to have excessively high levels of humidity.  Few chateaux are endowed with that feature.  La Clotte is fortunate to be one of them.

Château La Clotte dates its history back to 1886, when the Marquis Gaston de Grailly created the estate from vines that his family has owned since 1747.  The Grailly family is related to the Becot family, the owner of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot (another estate with impressive underground limestone cellars).  In 1913, the property was sold to the Chailleau-Moulierac family.  The estate was known as La Clotte de Grailly until 1949, when the name of the original owner was dropped.  In mid-1960s, the Chailleau-Moulierac family granted exclusive distribution rights to Ets JP Moueix (the negociant behind famed Petrus), about the same time when Petrus saw its price skyrochet under a similar exclusivity arrangement.  In 1989, unconvinced their wine was getting the best result, the Chailleau family decided to take matters into their own hands and ended the exclusivity contract.  For many years, Nelly Moulierac led the improvement of quality and presence of La Clotte in fine wine market.  In 2014, the Vauthier family (owner of Château Ausone) acquired La Clotte as it sits really near Ausone's own vineyard.  A leisurely stroll from one house to the other takes only 9 minutes, the vineyards are practically next to each other.

Château La Clotte is a small property, with 3 heactares under vine out of 4 heactares of land. On average, it produces 1,500 cases each year.  Today, La Clotte is run by Alain Vauthier and his daughter, Pauline.  She is also the winemaker at Château Ausone.  2015 was the inaugural vintage under the Vauthier ownership.

"This was the first vintage for the Vauthier family of Château Ausone off this tiny three-hectare estate. Composed of 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, 85% new, the 2015 La Clotte displays a medium to deep garnet-purple color and a very spicy nose of cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise and allspice over core of red and black currants, mulberries and black soil plus a waft of violets. Full-bodied and decadently fruited with a firm backbone of very ripe, beautifully velvety tannins, it has a lively backbone providing loads of lift throughout the very long finish." - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Advocate (02/21/2018), Ratings: 95+, Drink: 2022-2044

"Made by Alain Vauthier and from a similar terroir to Ausone, yet with a different exposition, the 2015 Château La Clotte is a blend of 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon raised in 85% new French oak. Possessing an incredible elegance and purity, with medium to full-bodied richness and notes of cassis and black raspberry fruits, underbrush, damp earth and subtle oak, it has a striking floral component, a great mid-palate, and sweet tannin, all suggesting it’s going to keep for at least 10-15 years." - Jeb Dunnuck, (11/30/2017), Ratings: 94, Drink: 2018-2033