Climens Asphodele Grand Vin Blanc Bordeaux Sec AOC Blanc – 2019

This is our “wine of the Summer 2022”! To be awarded this very personal recommendation, I am looking for a wine which totally overdelivers in quality at its price point, which has a definite “wow factor”, and which is an excellent example of its specific style and region of origin.

Bérénice Lurton, the owner and winemaker at Chateau Climens, is an extremely talented lady! She makes some of the finest sweet wines in the world from her age-old Semillon vines in the Barsac sub region of Sauternes. And since 2018 she now makes one of the most charming, seductive, elegant and classy dry white wines I have tasted from all Bordeaux – Asphodèle.

The wine is 100% biodynamic and organic and spends no time at all in oak during its maturation – it is a completely pure, unadulterated and terroir-expressive example of the Semillon grape. She makes this wine with the expert guidance of Pascal Jolivet, who is equally gifted in producing top class Sancerres from his 100% Sauvignon Blanc grapes in the Loire….

The combination of these 2 top winemakers and the wonderful terroir of Chateau Climens has produced a delight of a wine, with gentle flavours of wild flowers, fresh and lively acidity, balance and poise. It is a wine more of texture and mouthfeel than of dramatic fruit flavours, but it leaves you feeling refreshed, happy, and most importantly, thirsty for more!

“This is only the second vintage of this dry white wine made from the Chateau Climens’s vineyard in Sauternes, in collaboration with Pascal Jolivet from Sancerre. It is 100% Sémillon, fermented and aged in stainless steel. The nose has a lovely, soft-spoken restraint, offering notes of lemon peel, fresh hay, Bosc pears and paraffin wax with touches of coriander seed, honeysuckle and toasted almonds. The medium-bodied palate has beautifully understated savory and mineral nuances accenting the citrus and spiced pears flavors with a lively line of freshness and a satiny texture, finishing long and perfumed. I’m seriously smitten by this uniquely fragrant, uncontrived style of dry white coming from Sauternes—bravo! It is delicious right now, but I’d like to see what this does with 5+ years of cellaring. As with Chateau Climens, this wine is certified both organic and biodynamic.”92+pts The Wine Advocate