Petite Lily AOC 2023

Wine description for Petite Lily AOC 2023 by Château Climens

Colour & appearance

Pale, brilliant straw yellow — clear and youthful in the glass, like a wine that has no time to waste.

Nose

Fresh and direct: white blossoms, greengages and fresh apple, accompanied by a burst of citrus fruit. Fine herbal notes of verbena and lemon balm lend the bouquet a green, almost garden-like character. Remarkably, the waxy aroma typically associated with Sémillon is distinctly restrained here.

Palate

Juicy and vibrant, yet at the same time silky and sensual — a rare dual talent. Ripe but never intrusive acidity meets a creamy texture that gives the wine volume without weighing it down. Precisely the balance one hopes for in an everyday wine yet so rarely finds.

Finish

Clean and refreshing, with a citrus-tinged aftertaste and a fine minerality reminiscent of wet limestone.

Terroir & origin

Château Climens, Premier Cru Classé of Barsac since 1855, owns 30 hectares in a single block on a limestone plateau with the finest drainage in the appellation. It is from this subsoil that the vibrant, never heavy minerality derives which defines every wine of the estate. Petite Lily comes from the estate’s youngest vine plantings.

Grape variety & vinification

100% Sémillon — the estate’s sole grape variety, whether for sweet or dry wines. Maturation takes place in stainless steel tanks, without wood, so that nothing stands between fruit and terroir.

Food recommendations

An uncomplicated wine for everyday enjoyment: with grilled sole fillet, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, lemon risotto or a plate of oysters. Equally delightful on its own, well chilled on the terrace.

Special features

That a legendary sweet wine estate — the “Lord of Barsac” — has been producing dry white wines since 2018 marks something of a paradigm shift in Bordeaux. Petite Lily is the accessible entry point to this range, crafted at an estate that has been farming biodynamically with Demeter certification since 2014. The 2023 vintage shows even fresher and more playful than its predecessor.