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Château Pape Clément, seven centuries of history
| 2009-10-27 By Emmanuel Tresmontant It’s hard to imagine what on earth could be grandiose about the Pessac vineyard, wedged and spread between the city of Bordeaux and the motorway… And yet it was there, on these lands of alluvium carried down by the nearby Garonne river, that seven centuries ago the idea of the great red wine of Bordeaux as we see it today germinated: wine that is at once rich and subtle, voluptuous and reserved, sensual and cerebral… The story originates with an extraordinary man of the church, a certain Bertrand de Goth, originally from Uzeste in the Landes. Appointed archbishop of Bordeaux in 1299, he received the gift of a small estate of scarcely 4 hectares called “vignoble de la Mothe”, located at the heart of the village of Pessac. It was greatly to his credit that he sensed the presence of a great terroir here and applied to the vineyard a method of cultivation and wine production that was extremely rational for the time. In 1305, Bertrand de Goth was elected Pope, took the name of Clement V and left for Avignon*, leaving his château in Pessac to the archbishopric of Bordeaux, which was to keep it intact up until the Revolution. Today, Château Pape Clément belongs to Bernard Magrez. This former king of supermarket port, tequila and whisky has, in 40 years, become the brains behind a multinational comprising no fewer than 35 estates scattered throughout Europe, Latin America and California… A veritable self-made-man à la française, Bernard Magrez appeals to both the “general public” and enlightened amateurs. The latter – initially hesitant – have been forced to recognise the quality of the work carried out by Magrez within Château Pape Clément since its acquisition in 1975. Its 30ha of red vines (60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot) and 2.5ha of white (45% Sauvignon, 45% Sémillon, 10% Muscadelle) are indeed cultivated with the greatest care.  © E. Tresmontant/ViaMichelin The exceptional terroir of Pape Clément resembles a mosaic of different soils, some gravelly (therefore good for Cabernet), others sandy and clayey (well suited to Merlot)… Sustainable viticulture, ploughing by Burgundian horse, disbudding, leaf thinning, grassing down, manual grape harvesting, picking of grapes from the bunch one by one, ultramodern cellars… Everything is done to obtain the purest and most natural expression of the terroir and vintage. For Bernard Magrez, the gem of his “collection” is unquestionably the red Pape Clément 1995, which we had the pleasure of tasting in his Louis XVI dining room; a wine that has reached full maturity, boasting a beautiful dark red colour with a brown sheen. It is captivating to the taste with its smoky, spicy notes that are very typical of the terroir. * Clement V also encouraged the birth of another very great French vineyard, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, near Avignon. Château Pape Clément216, avenue du docteur Nancel Pénard 33600 Pessac Tel: + 33 (0)5 57 26 38 38 |
