Chateau La Clotte St. Emilion Bordeaux Wine

Chateau La Clotte St. Emilion, Bordeaux wine producer profile, with wine tasting notes, wine ratings, a history of the property, information on wine making and terroir, along with wine tasting reviews. If you want to read about other important, Bordeaux Chateaux: Links to all Bordeaux Wine Producer Profiles

Château La Clotte is one of the oldest Bordeaux wine vineyards in the Right Bank. The estate has been a working vineyard since the late 14th century. Chateau La Clotte, which is located inside the walls of the St. Emilion village belongs to the Grailly family. They are related to the Becot family, who own Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot. Today, Nelly Moulierac is in charge of managing Chateau La Clotte.

Chateau La Clotte covers 20 hectares of St. Emilion vineyard land. Over the years, a large amount of vines was split off into other parcels. In 1913, the Chailleau family bought the last remaining plot of Chateau La Clotte. At that time, the name of the estate was changed from Chateau de Grailly to Chateau La Clotte.

Chateau La Clotte is a true, St. Emilion’s insiders secret, Bordeaux wine.  Due to its high quality, fair price and mineral driven, opulent style, this is a wine many of the local St. Emilion winery owners purchase for their own cellars. The jump in quality is now well established. Things started turning around for Chateau La Clotte after their contract with Ets. Moueix, who was responsible for managing and farming the property expired in 1999.

Located just behind the St. Emilion village, not far from Chateau Ausone the 4 hectare Bordeaux vineyard of Chateau La Clotte is situated on clay with limestone terroir. The vines are planted to 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vines are old. On average, they are close to 40 years of age. The vines are planted to a density of 6,500 vines per hectare. the vineyard is divided into 12 separate parcels.

For the vinification, Chateau La Clotte is fermented in temperature controlled Inox vats. There are enough vats to allow for parcel by parcel vinification of Chateau La Clotte. in 2012, Chateau La Clotte purchased a new thermoregulation system for the vats, which allows for the first time the ability to truly vinify on a more precise basis.

The wine sees a selection of the must and goes through a cold pre-fermentation maceration, vinification at 32 Celsius. During the alcoholic fermentation, the Bordeaux wine receives 4 pump-overs per day, punching down and delestage(rack and return). Malolactic fermentation takes place in 50% new oak. Chateau La Clotte is then aged in 50% new, French oak barrels for close to 15 months, depending on the quality and character of the vintage. On average, Chateau La Clotte produces 1,200 cases of Bordeaux wine per year.

http://www.chateaulaclotte.com/