The Winery
A family owned vineyard
Château Clarisse and its history
“After two years of research, we had a real favorite for a vineyard property combining ideal terroir and climate, combined with a perfect vineyard, 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. To develop a wine as I imagined it, rich in perfume and subtle “.
Driven by the passion for wine and the taste for challenge, Olivia and Didier Le Calvez have been signing their own wine since 2010 in one of the most illustrious regions of the Bordeaux constellation, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Saint-Emilionnais.
The passion of Didier Le Calvez for the wine and its environment dates back to his childhood while he was spending his holidays at his grand-mother house, in Cadaujac. Since that time, he has always been interesting in the wine market evolution : from the farms cultivating the vines in Pessac Leognan when he was kid to the birth of the bigest vineyards in California in the 70’s, which were telling a certain idea of the amerivan dream… Olivia Le Calvez is also remembering her childhood in the middle of the vines, in Haut-Medoc, giving her the taste for the autenticity of this noble product. These childhood memories on these lands of vines have nourished their dream of one day, having their own vineyard.
After several years of research started in 2007, the dream of Olivia and Didier took the form of an authentic Girondine stone stuffed in the green landscape and all in gentle curves of the right bank. This old winery with magnificent wine cellars, which for more than a century has been in the hands of the Estager family, is surrounded by a beautiful vineyard (perched at 100 meters) on the plateau of Puisseguin, one Of the four “satellite” villages of Saint-Emilion. Only a humble brook, the Barbanne, a sub-tributary of the Dordogne, separates them from the illustrious strong city.
Thus was born Château CLARISSE, the name of their daughter (who was one year old at the birth of the first bottle, in 2010), to write a beautiful family story…
Discover our exceptional
terroir
A perfect localisation and soil for a diversified vineyard
The vineyard covers today 21ha, including 3 ha of woods, mainly on the limestone plateau of Saint Emilion, at 100m hight.
Soils are made of limestone and clay, with exceptional "astéries " limestone.
48 % Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc but also Carménère and Petit Verdot, typical grapes varieties from Bordeaux, as well as Chardonnay since 2020. 60% of the vines has been replanted since the beginning of the vineyard, while keeping 15% of old vines ( between 45 to 75 y.o).60% de vignes replantées depuis la création du vignoble mais aussi 15% de vieilles vignes, entre 45 et 75 ans d'âge.
Manual harvest are made in order to preserve the sol and the vines.
A preserved environment
The respect of biodiversity
Certified organic since 2019, Château Clarisse has chosen an eco-friendly approach to preserve the biodiversity on its vineyard. The organic certification is the result of the process started from 2009, having worked in “agriculture raisonnée” from the beginning. With the help of the National Institut for the Research in Agriculture, an important work has been done to clean-up and preserve our woods ( 3.5ha), new hedges has been planted to keep on developping the agroforestry, a vegetable garden has been created as well as beehives. Numerous vineyards around us also being organic, the environment is also perfect all around our plots.
