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Domaine Clarence Dillon ventures beyond Bordeaux with Klara organic wine range
The owner of famed Bordeaux estate Château Haut-Brion has debuted a new range of organic wines from Southern France.
Domaine Clarence Dillon’s launch of its new organic wine range, Klara, marks the family’s first foray beyond Bordeaux.
Prince Robert of Luxembourg, CEO and chairman of the Domaine Clarence Dillon group, has spearheaded the project with the help of winemaker Nathalie Bassot-Dworkin, the group’s director of operations. Bassot-Dworkin, who has worked for Domaine Clarence Dillon for over 18 years, having joined in 2006, is head oenologist for Klara.
A red, white and rosé trio of wines from the 2023 vintage mark the debut of the range, described by the company as “a one-way ticket to the south of France”.
The first Klara organic wines from the 2023 vintage consist of the following blends:
Klara red – 70% Syrah, 30% Grenache, at (15% abv)
Klara white – 50% Sauvignon, 50% Viognier (12.5% abv)
Klara rosé – 70% Grenache, 30% Syrah (13% abv)
Suggested retail price for each wine is €15 (£12.83) per bottle. According to Decanter, each wine will be labelled as Vin de France, and the wines have been sourced from specific producers across the Mediterranean arc spanning Provence, the Rhône and Languedoc-Roussillon – the latter now forming part of the wider Occitanie region.
Prince Robert is the great-grandson of American financier, Clarence Dillon, who bought Bordeaux’s Château Haut-Brion in 1935. Fifty years later, La Mission Haut-Brion was added to the portfolio by Prince Robert’s mother, the Duchesse de Mouchy. Prince Robert took over the company in 2002, and later established the Bordeaux négociant business Clarence Dillon Wines. He has since launched a line of branded Bordeaux wines named Clarendelle, acquired and merged three Saint-Émilion châteaux into a single property now called Château Quintus and created a Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Clarence, in Paris, as well as a fine wine merchant, La Cave du Château.
Château Haut-Brion 2021 scored 97 points in William Kelley’s recent reports on the Bordeaux vintage.