Château Climens

The Free Bacchus Story

April frost took the whole of the 2017 crop, and Barsac was hit harder than Sauternes. The following year mildew and a run of pests took 2018. Two consecutive vintages with nothing to sell, on an estate that had by then been farming biodynamically for the best part of a decade.

The farming makes that risk structural rather than bad luck. Barsac depends on botrytis settling on ripe Sémillon and dehydrating the berries without tipping over into grey rot — one fungus encouraged, the other kept out. Farming this ground organically means giving up the sprays that would ordinarily separate those two outcomes, on a wine whose entire character depends on the difference.

Conversion began in 2010 and certification followed in 2014. Climens is described as the first classified growth in Barsac to get there; we record that as a description in circulation rather than a first we have verified.

On 4 July 2022 Bérénice Lurton sold a majority stake to Jean-Hubert Moitry and his family, of Patrimonia Développement, staying on in an advisory role alongside technical director Frédéric Nivelle. Demeter certification has been maintained.

Certificates attach to the holding, not to the family that earned them. That is why a change of ownership sends a producer back for re-checking here rather than carrying the old entry forward on the strength of who used to run it.