“One of the sweetest Climens ever! Will doubtless be a great Climens in the very rich, liquorous style of the year.” 19/20 points. Michael Schuster, The World of Fine Wine (1), April 2004

“Loads of honey, maple syrup, dried apricot and spice. Full-bodied, medium-sweet, with a refined, spicy character. Pretty wine. Masses of botrytis. This is refined and long, a racy wine compared with the power and muscle of so many others. Beauty among the beasts. Best after 2012. 2,300 cases made.” 96/100 points James Suckling, WineSpectator.com, March 2006

Château Climens is one of the few premier crus classés, from the 1855 classification, to have chosen to be a single-varietal vineyard. The Sémillon expresses all its elegance and an unexpected freshness for ripe grapes with little acidity on the limestone terroir of Climens. The vineyard, located on a plateau about 20 m above sea level, extends over 32 hectares in one piece all around the castle. It is an enclosure surrounded by dry stone walls and marked by the red colour of its soil, the famous red sands of Barsac. This thin layer of clayey and ferruginous sands less than 50 cm long rests on a subsoil of fissured asteria limestone, a slab that testifies to the presence of the sea during the Lower Oligocene period, nearly 30 million years ago. The other particularity of the Climens terroir lies in its tight network of faults, on which a karst development has been modelled, i.e. dissolution cavities in the limestone. This underground network captures rainwater well while ensuring perfect drainage, thus ensuring good water regulation of the vines. This particular geological formation gives all its letters of nobility to the wines of Barsac in general, which has its own appellation, within the five communes of the Sauternes appellation. The microclimate of the Sauternes, the alternation of the famous morning mists due to the confluence of the cold waters of the Ciron at the end of summer with the warmer waters of the Garonne and the afternoon sun allows the development of Botrytis Cinerea, a noble rot that concentrates the grapes and reveals its rich aromatic palette.