Château La Clarière Blanc

Team changes at the château

Clement Agostino moved to ‘new pastures’ just before vintage in 2024, a tricky time of year, but Jean-Marc was lucky enough to be put in touch with Antoine Palard, a mature student at Le Blanquefort, looking for vintage experience.

Antoine has an interesting background – previously he was a sommelier at the fanciest restaurants in Archachon – La Co(o)rniché and then La Ha(a)ïtza hotel with its 2-Star Michelin restaurant and décor designed by Philip Stark. He obviously gained a taste for great wine, and decided he’d like to make the stuff, not just serve it. So he enrolled at the Le Blanquefort wine school in the Médoc. He has now graduated … with a first … and Jean-Marc has snapped him up for the team. He’s been with them on a permanent basis since 1st July 2025.

Antoine originally comes from Nancy in eastern France. In the cellar, he’s very thorough, organised, listens hard and insists on everything being ultra clean and ready for action. That makes Jean-Marc very happy. Antoine was warmly welcomed by the team, “like a breath of fresh air for everyone” enthused Jean-Marc.

This has translated into even greater care and precision during the production of the 2024 white Château La Clarière – from selecting the grapes, crushing, fermenting the juice and settling, through to oak fermentation and lees ageing. He ‘listens’ closely to the wine and will put forward suggestions accordingly – something that never was permitted in the more traditional Bordeaux establishment he worked at before.

The result in 2024 was longer lees ageing of the wine but less batonnage. The 2024 release is very pure with lifted aromas of toasted oak, bright lemon and creamy lees. On the palate, it opens with that rounded creaminess again, vanilla and toasty hints, along with intense lime beautifully integrated with subtle ripples of oak. It’s long and persistent and will only increase in complexity as it ages. At least another five years, probably longer.

A snapshot of the 2025 vintage for La Clarière Blanc

2025 will be a very small crop, a third of the normal yields for Château La Clarière Blanc. Due to the heat and lack of rain, many of the white grapes became golden and more raisin-like, with 20° potential alcohol! So Jean-Marc, inventive as ever, decided to try his hand at a sweet wine in half bottles. Those grapes are so high in sugar, the must is still fermenting, but it promises to be lush and intense. We will keep you posted.

As for the dry version … the small amounts of Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris that were harvested have just about finished fermenting – a little in amphorae, but most in barrel. The cuvées will be aged there on lees for around 8 months. It should be an intense white.