Château Feytit-Clinet
Chemin de Feytit

33500 Pomerol, France
Tel : +33 (0)557 255 127

jeremy.chasseuil@orange.fr

Château Feytit-Clinet, the outsider turned challenger in Pomerol

All about Feytit-Clinet, a great Pomerol wine

Long managed by Jean-Pierre Moueix, Château Feytit-Clinet became the property of the Chasseuil family in 2000. Jérôme Chasseuil, an oenologist by training, took over the reins of this Pomerol neighbor of Clinet and Latour in Pomerol, producing 6.5 hectares (as much as to say a “garden”) of suave wines without lacking in strong character. With its high-potential terroir, the estate has gone from outsider to challenger in the appellation in the space of 20 years.

The emergence of a real talent in Pomerol.

Long farmed by the Moueix family (Jean-Pierre Moueix owns the famous Pomerol châteaux La Fleur Pétrus, Trotanoy, Hosanna, Latour...), Château Feytit-Clinet was bought by the Chasseuil family in 1997. This name is no stranger to the wine world, as the owner of Feytit-Clinet, Jérémy Chasseuil, is none other than the son of Michel-Jack Chasseuil, the famous French collector who owned the world's most prestigious wine cellar at La Chapelle-Bâton in the Deux-Sèvres region.

A man of orchestration both in the vineyard and the cellar, Jérémy Chasseuil was soon a relevant member of the rising young generation in the famous Right Bank appellation. He is no novice in this field, having already spent many years at Château La Dominique in Saint-Emilion. Officially at the helm of this well-deserving Pomerol since 2000, it is with patience and insight that he has awakened the soul of this excellent terroir on the western part of the Pomerol plateau - “a little asleep” before the takeover - made up of gravel on superb clay. Noted by the critics, Feytit-Clinet's wines quickly showed signs of success.

There's nothing ostentatious here, just functional craftsmanship.

We're in Pomerol, a prestigious appellation that has been delightfully discreet for ages, because “flashiness” is not part of the appellation's remit. It's hardly surprising, then, not to see a spectacular château, or a state-of-the-art winery built by a famous architect with an array of technological innovations. Feytit-Clinet is anything but. But that hasn't stopped Jérémy Chasseuil from making the estate one of the most promising in the appellation. Jérémy prefers to devote all his time and energy to his vineyard because, in good “peasant” sense, that's where it all starts, to make great wines from great grapes. With such a small surface area, Jérémy considers his work more like that of a gardener. Because 6.5 hectares is both a vineyard on a human scale - compared to the immensity of the vines on Médoc estates - and a size that's not insignificant on the scale of Pomerol estates. In the “Merlot” appellation, where estates are usually no larger than 3 hectares, Feytit-Clinet is like a “large English garden”. This single, uninterrupted playing field allows its owner to concoct, from vines that are some forty years old, fastidious flacons vinified with intelligence.

The spirit of Feytit-Clinet awakens.

2000 is the vintage where it all began for Jérémy Chasseuil. A magical year with three zeros and, what's more, one of great quality, which he vinified himself. Feytit-Clinet is what you might call a “family business”. Partly owned by his father, Michel-Jack Chasseuil, since the 1980s - the other part belonging by inheritance to the city of Bordeaux - it was in 1997 that the château and its vineyard became the property of the Chasseuil family, through a purchase from the said city. And so the adventure began. The objective could not be clearer: to recreate the profound identity of this high-potential vineyard, with the challenge of extricating it from an unjust anonymity; in other words, to give it back the qualitative reputation it deserves.

It's never an easy task, especially in these times of crisis. But Jérémy has made the right choice: to invest in Pomerol, where property prices do not seem to be subject to devaluation. And to achieve his lofty goal, Jérémy pragmatically observes the state of the work equipment and lists the urgent needs in the cellar as well as in the vineyard. Here, we go straight to the essentials, without worrying about appearances, which are, after all, secondary in quality viticulture. So, on site, there's no need to demand the sight of a château with infrastructures that look like “sanitized” Versailles. Long undergoing renovation, but very functional at this stage, the property - with its adorable dovecote - is just like the other estates grafted onto the appellation's 800 hectares. Everything here is on a human scale, with an open face and total transparency. Apart from the demand for quality, everything else is secondary.

A vineyard with atypical characteristics for singular wines.

Walking through the vineyards of Feytit-Clinet, one might be surprised by the type of soil at the château. While the reputation of Pomerol wines is very often explained by its famous clay matrix (sometimes white, sometimes grey, red or even blue), Jérémy Chasseuil has to build a style of wine in which tannic power is not necessarily the main feature on the palate. Gravelly-sandy soils on a clay matrix characterize Feytit-Clinet. This is undoubtedly a superb terroir. Does the minerality of the wines, which is so evident in the tastings, stem from this soil characteristic? Yes, probably! Mostly planted with Merlot (90%) and the famous Bouchet (Cabernet Franc), the perfectly draining plots are called upon to produce well-balanced wines that attest to the fact that the vines here never suffer from exacerbated water stress. This is the magic of clay and heavy, cool soils. The vineyard has been redesigned to increase the height of the vines, the leaf area (in the jargon) on the one hand, and to reduce yields on the other, through more appropriate pruning, counter-budding, and two summer passages of “green harvesting”. All this care lavished on the vines contributes to the production of highly polished wines that are not lacking in personality; a type of wine that could be described as aromatically powerful, generous and delicate. The finesse on the palate is guaranteed here by vinification (gentle pumping over and punching of the cap, 4 to 5 weeks of slow vatting) and ageing methods that are perfectly suited to the idea of the wines that are born in Jérémy's mind. Excessive use of wood, which for so long condemned wines to uniformity in the 90s, has fortunately been forbidden here since the beginning of the adventure.

Feytit-Clinet: wines of depth and distinction.  

Jérémy Chasseuil has raised his wines to the level of Pomerol's sure-fire, must-try wines. A keen observer of the vine and its needs to produce great grapes for great wines, his work has always consisted of accompanying his terroir to produce true Pomerols of incomparable finesse, all from judicious, gentle vinification. Feytit-Clinet produces around 2,000 cases of wine every year. The wines are distinguished by their elegance, depth, fruitiness and ageing potential, which many people look for in wines, even if over the last twenty years or so, Bordeaux wines have become “drinkable” earlier and earlier after bottling.

Château Feytit-Clinet 2023  

Surely one of the best Pomerols in terms of value for money. In this vintage. The blend comprises 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc. With its deep, intense color, Feytit-Clinet 2023 offers an opulent, rich nose on a consistent raw material full of freshness and brilliance, with expressions of fresh blackcurrant, red-fleshed fruit and a few stony (mineral) notes. The palate is silky, with plenty of flesh and a velvety mid-palate, all supported by fine acidity (freshness) from the attack to the finish. A long finish. Everything is there. But let's give it time to mellow out a bit!

Château Feytit-Clinet 2020  

The 2020 vintage is one of the major vintages in the Bordeaux region, on a par with 2018, 2019 and 2022. Feytit-Clinet 2020 reflects the right choice of harvest dates (just before and after the rains, which fell on the third weekend of September). Harvest date is always the key to the success of future wines. Let's face it, before the rain, the Merlot grapes were more aromatic, finer and more structured than the Cabernet Franc. The grapes harvested after the rain have, on the contrary, but offering an excellent complement of style, grapes with more freshness, more drive, more energy and more creaminess to some extent. The result is a gourmet wine, very fresh, very aromatic, with sensual expressions of spice. The palate is full-bodied and unctuous, with tannins that are both well sheathed and coated. A fine Pomerol for laying down, reminiscent in style of the 2016 Feytit-Clinet, in Jérémy Chasseuil's opinion, but playing more on the aromatic side.

The great Feytit-Clinet vintages :

1998-2000-2005-2008-2009-2010-2012-2015-2016-2018-2019-2020-2022- 2023