Clos Puy Arnaud - Thierry Valette

The Clos Puy Arnaud winery is a biodynamic producer in the Bordeaux region that is managed with great skill and tenacity by Thierry Valette. It is located in the town of Belves de Castillon, where Therry's adventure began in 2000 from 6 hectares of family-owned vineyards. Actually, the journey that led the current owner of the estate to continue the family's passion is very different from what we would have thought. Thierry did not have a great passion for wine when he was young and had other things on his mind, with jazz music and a career in modern dance at the top of his wish list. Gradually however, Therry began to change his approach to the world of wine. He met many different people, discovered the magic of wine and fell madly in love with it. His vision of agriculture was sharpened by meeting Anne Calderoni, who is both a supporter and expert of agriculture and biodynamic methods. She guided the young and talented man towards his first steps in this great world through a purely artisanal approach, which was free and emotional, holistic and highly sensitive to nature. This is how, in the land of his ancestors, the new Clos Puy Arnaud winery was established.

The Clos Puy Arnaud winery is located on the Saint Èmillion ridge, although the area was excluded from the communal denomination and remained in the shadow of the region's great titans for years. This has actually helped Thierry and other local winemakers who have acquired land at affordable prices and created a collective workshop where, through experience and advice, the best quality formula for creating the perfect Bordeaux red wine has been developed. The vines grown by the winery are between 30 and 60 years old and belong to the long and historic local tradition, with Merlot primarily, followed by the inseparable Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The particularity of the soil in this area, which consists of a limestone matrix à astéries (''starfish-like''), has made the area highly successful. In the cellar, fermentation is clearly spontaneous, using exclusively indigenous yeasts, and ageing takes place in cement, amphoras or wooden barrels, which do not alter the expressiveness of the vine and the terroir.

The wines of Clos Puy Arnaud are the pure and crystalline expressions of the fruit, with no touch-ups or shortcuts. They reveal the artisanal nature of this region with a unique and original directness. Mineral, typical, fine and elegant, these wines combine extreme precision with genuine territorial expressiveness.