Its pulpy, just and sophisticated wines don’t play around caricature but offer a perfect balance of freshness and body. A delicate equation that this musician set up twenty years ago and has since, signed its singularity. A stone’s throw from the east of Libourne its Castillon terroir offers the very best of Bordeaux: limestone with starfish fossils, similar to those seen in Saint-Emilion great crus. Clos Puy Arnaud possesses one the most sought-after pedigrees of the right bank.

But here no rivalry over raising, even less excess tannic matter: it’s in its fineness and freshness that these aesthetes’ wines slide into, aiming for a pulpy flesh where the fruit squeezes with vigor and flavor. As you will have understood already: cuvees full of charm, lifeblood and precision. The Grail!

– Véronique Raisin

Thierry Valette