Thierry Valette is from a generations-old winemaking family on Bordeaux’s “Right Bank”—his grandfather, Alexandre, acquired the châteaux Pavie and Troplong-Mondot in the 1940s—but he initially strayed from wine in favor of a career in the arts (music and dance). When he decided to return to his wine roots, he went full immersion, working alongside the likes of Jean-Paul Valette at Château Pavie and François Mitjaville at Château Tertre Roteboeuf, and consulting with Bordeaux luminaries such as Stéphane Derenoncourt (probably Bordeaux’s most-famous winemaking guru after Michel Rolland) and biodynamic viticulture consultant Anne Calderoni (who is quite famous in her own right).

 

Valette acquired Clos Puy Arnaud in the late-1990s, and worked with Calderoni to convert the 12 hectares of vines to organics and, later, biodynamics. The estate has been certified biodynamic by “AB” since 2009 and by “Biodyvin” since 2010, with its vineyard broken into two parcels on a limestone plateau just two kilometers east of Saint-Émilion. Clos Puy Arnaud as a vineyard entity goes back to the 1870s, and is referenced in historic texts on Bordeaux, including the legendary Cocks & Féret tome Bordeaux et Ses Vins, first published in 1850. It was long considered part of the Saint-Émilion wine zone, but was left outside that boundary when it was officially drawn in 1950. In a way, that’s lucky—it would cost a lot more if it said “Saint-Émilion” on the label. Meanwhile, Castillon is hardly a terroir to sneeze at: the vineyards sit in some of the hardest, densest limestone in france, with an extremely thin, pebbly clay topsoil. Perhaps the most notable feature of the Clos Puy Arnaud 2014 is its rigid mineral backbone.

 

If you follow the “natural wine” scene at all, you don’t hear as much about Bordeaux as you do about, say, the Loire Valley (kind of the spiritual home of biodynamics). A lot of people wrote off Bordeaux as a place overrun by corporate interests and decimated by years of chemically enhanced viticulture. But Bordeaux is a big place. Huge, actually. Of course the natural wine movement has a foothold here, and Puy Arnaud has become of its standard-bearers, turning up at natural wine fairs and attracting the attention of journalists (as we were tasting the 2014, in fact, the journalist/author Jon Bonné posted a shot on Instagram of his visit with Thierry Valette, who was holding a topographical map and talking terroir).

 

The 2014 Clos Puy Arnaud is 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon was whole-cluster fermented in a mix of concrete and old wooden vats, after which it was aged 7 months in a mixture of new (25%) and used barrels. It then rested another year in concrete tanks before bottling. In the glass it is an opaque purple-ruby all the way to the rim, with aromatics that are initially brooding and savory—crushed stones, cacao, tobacco and grill char—but blossom with air and include notes of huckleberry, blueberry, black plum, and violets. It is medium-plus in body, reminiscent more of elite-level Saint-Émilion bottlings than of juicier, more chocolatey Pomerols (despite the predominance of Merlot). It is rigid and upright, with great energy and iron-shaving tannins that loosen their grip after about an hour in a decanter; it should also be noted that this wine was absolutely seductive on day two, as those tannins loosened up even more and the fragrant core of pure, clean fruit shone through. It is an impressive, age-worthy Bordeaux by any measure: I foresee it aging gracefully for 10-20 years, likely starting to peak around its 10th birthday but cruising to an elegant old age. If you’re enjoying it now, decant it well before serving at 60-65 degrees in Bordeaux stems. The heady, meaty quality of this wine has me thinking of a ‘black-and-blue’ steak or another rich protein like duck or even venison. We haven’t trotted out the fancy French classic Tournedos Rossini in a while, and now seems like the perfect time. This will make for a very special dinner, I hope sometime soon. Bon appétit!