Château Pape Clément

The château

Bertrand de Goth, archbishop of Bordeaux, held the vineyard at Pessac; elected pope in 1305, he took the name Clement V, moved the papacy to Avignon and left the property to the see of Bordeaux, which kept it for 5 centuries, until the Revolution sold it. The harvests of Pape Clément are counted from 1252. The name was in the language early: Rabelais gave honorable mention in 1535 to vin Clémentin, the Clement wine, and in 1601 Cardinal de Sourdis asked leave to bring the harvest of the Pape-Clément vine into the city before the permitted day. André Jullien, the Paris wine merchant whose Topographie de tous les vignobles connus of 1816 surveyed the vineyards of the world, singled out 2 growths called Pape-Clément at Pessac, and in 1832 placed them in his second class, beside La Mission. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, printed Jarrige, Pape Clément, at 30 to 40 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) that year; by 1845 the name was split between de Fortmanoir, at 30 to 40, and Jarrige, at 12 to 15. In 1908 Édouard Féret, in Les vins des Graves rouges et blancs, gave the heirs of J. Cinto 80 tonneaux off a vineyard of about 37 hectares and noted a ferruginous spring in the park known since Gallo-Roman times.

Bernard Magrez bought Pape Clément in 1985; it was the first vineyard he owned, and he holds 4 classified growths today. It was classified in 1953 for its red wine, and the list took its present form with the decree of February 16, 1959; the white is not a classified wine. The vineyard runs to 75 hectares on the gravel of Pessac, with the suburbs of Bordeaux against its walls: 65 in red, planted 50% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, and 10 in white, 60% Sauvignon Blanc, 35% Sémillon, 4% Sauvignon Gris and 1% Muscadelle. Le Clémentin du Pape Clément, in red and in white, is the second wine.

The red is rich and polished. The 2016, which I tasted in November 2025, had deep, ripe fruit and silky tannins wrapped in the smoky, mineral notes of the gravel, a wine of grandeur and finesse at once; its blend that year was 60% Merlot, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc.

At a glance

Appellation

Pessac-Léognan

Commune

Pessac

Classification

Cru Classé de Graves for red, 1953 and 1959

Owner

Bernard Magrez, since 1985

Vineyard

75 hectares, 65 in red and 10 in white

Soil

Gravel Terroir of Pessac-Léognan →

Grapes

Red: Merlot 50%, Cabernet Sauvignon 45%, Cabernet Franc 3%, Petit Verdot 2%; white: Sauvignon Blanc 60%, Sémillon 35%, Sauvignon Gris 4%, Muscadelle 1%

Wines

Château Pape Clément (red and white); Le Clémentin du Pape Clément (red and white)

In history

Held by the archbishops of Bordeaux for 5 centuries; 80 tonneaux in 1908