Magic and Madness: Climens 1912-2020 

BY NEAL MARTIN | AUGUST 18, 2022

I have never been much of a gambler. Ask me to throw a six, and I’ll throw you a one every time. Place a bet on a horse, and it will go lame before the starting gun. The only time I gambled was at a birthday celebration at Wimbledon greyhound track when we all put our money on “Pants”. No joke. That was the dog’s name. The odds were long, but remarkably, he won the final race, and we cashed in our chips. Part of our fortune was invested in a round of beers and the remainder invested in dozens of National Lottery tickets. Surely one of them would win us a huge payout? Of course, we didn’t win a penny, and I frantically phoned friends before any put a down-payment on a Porsche.

This is why I could never become a winemaker in Sauternes. Considering the hard work and dedication invested in producing Bordeaux’s sweet nectar, the scandalously scant financial reward and the odds of a successful vintage, well, I would not be able to handle the sleepless nights. Someone who has endured their unfair amount of stress and misfortune is proprietor of Barsac’s leading estate, Bérénice Lurton at Château Climens. Losing one vintage is unfortunate. Losing four out of five years must be soul-destroying. In this article, I examine reasons why Lurton’s soul has not been crushed and why ours turned out to be the final vertical tasting conducted during the official Lurton era.

The sign welcoming you to Château Climens.

History

Historical research has uncovered that the land was owned by the Roborel family in the mid-15th century. Climens’ etymology is likely Celtic, a reference to barren and very poor lands, not unlike Trotanoy in Pomerol. “I think it’s wonderful to have a paradox in the name of a great wine produced on poor land,” Lurton tells me. “I find it interesting to draw a parallel between what made the Climens 'miracle' possible. A terroir with unique and exceptional characteristics and the history that allowed it to constantly develop at a high level over centuries. This is particularly impressive in Sauternes where production is based on noble rot and in a humid and changing oceanic climate.”

The Climens name first appears on a contract in 1547 when Girault Roborel was bequeathed the land from his father. The Roborel family would later append “de Climens” to their name. They established the estate over one century, and it remained in their hands until the French Revolution, by which time it was in some decline. In 1802, Climens was acquired by the wine merchant Jean Binaud. In David Peppercorn’s “Bordeaux”, he notes that in the 19th century the wine was written as “Climenz”, which he traces back to a 15th century tax collector named Jehan Climenz. As he collected tax on ships, he would give the captains a blue cypress as a kind of receipt, hence the name of the Deuxième Vin introduced in 1984, Cyprès de Climens. 

At the time of the 1855 classification, Climens comprised of around 27-hectares and was owned by the Mayor of Barsac, Eloi Lacoste, also proprietor of the exotic and what I thought was the Basque-sounding Château Peixotto [Bérénice Lurton later informs me that it was named after a Jewish-Portuguese businessman]. In the second edition of Bordeaux et Ses Vins (1863), Féret states that the annual production was between 25 and 40 tonneaux, and in 1871, both properties were acquired by Alfred Ribet. Unfortunately, in 1885, a large proportion of the vines were devastated by phylloxera and consequently Ribet decided to sell to Henri Gounouilhou, whose family name should be outlawed for a flagrant excess of vowels. Peixotto was subsumed into Château Rabaud and consigned to the pages of history.

Lucien Lurton, who acquired the estate in 1971.

At the turn of the century, Climens was highly-esteemed. Lurton cites a quotation from the Wine and Spirit Trade Record in 1920 that stated: “At Climens, quality has never been sacrificed for mere quantity, so that whatever quantity is now produced in any particular year represents the best possible quality of Château Climens for that year.”

Both Climens and the recently revived Doisy-Dubroca continued under the aegis of Gounouilhou until they passed into the hands of Lucien Lurton in 1971.