County Business Clubs’ Wine of the Month October 2024

Clavis Orea St Emilion Grand Cru 2019.

In August, a couple of close friends and I arranged a day trip to France via Bordeaux from Shoreham Airport in a friend’s private plane. We left at 7.30am and had to return before the airport closed at 8pm the same day, but were able to fit in three wine tastings and lunch.

The focus of the trip was to visit the area known as the ‘right bank’, or St Emilion, which produces some of the world’s finest and well-respected wines. St Emilion itself is a charming medieval town which borders on the equally famous Pomerol. Both areas have a focus on producing Merlot based wines, sometimes with the addition of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon to add more structure to the wine.

For many years, I have appreciated wines from St Emilion and its satellite villages which are great on their own but also a match made in heaven with a variety of foods.

Our guide for the day was the wonderful Lahcene, who started his career at The Ritz Hotel Paris as Sommelier before moving to California to Deutz Winery, and finally ending up working with winemaker Franck Jugelmann to help grow the brand Clavis Orea Grand Cru Saint-Émilion at Vignobles Rollet.

In his own words, Lahene explains a bit about the brand and it’s wines: “Clavis Orea meaning is ‘golden key’ in Latin, the symbol of welcoming in the hospitality industry. The golden keys represent high quality, hard work and passion, as we both come from restaurateur families. We wanted to reflect that in the name and quality of the wine, service, and dedication leading to high satisfaction.

“Clavis Orea Saint-Émilion Grand Cru is a wine that represents the right bank at his best, with great varietal definition Merlot-Cabernet, with good pedigree, well crafted, balanced, spices, fruit driven, with good backbone, fleshy, and very digest, moreover we wanted to make a great Grand Cru wine accessible palate wise and refined, that can be enjoyed once bottled but also can be aged up to 7-10 years before moving into secondary and tertiary stage.”

Michael’s tasting notes for the 2019 vintage

• Rich ruby in colour.

• Initially tar, tobacco, earthy notes and smokiness.

• From a fruit perspective, we have blackcurrant, sour black cherry and a hint of violet.

• Smooth, light in body but with good tannins and minerality.

Food pairing – A great pairing for all types of roast lamb

Where to buy?

This wine retails at between £28 and £35 a bottle, depending on vintage (2015/18/19), and can be bought online from a variety of UK vintners but also purchased from Spirit of the Downs Distillery at Bolney.

Written for County Business Club by Michael Yeoman, English wine specialist and producer of Spirit of the Downs, award-winning local artisan Sussex brandies and grape vodka.