Clos Puy Arnaud

The present buildings dedicated to the winemaking of this estate date from the middle of the 19th century.
It is cited in the Féret of 1898 as a cru known “for its fine wines with a rich bouquet, much sought after in the region”.
Geobiological studies attest, in the village of Belvès and its surroundings, to traces of dwellings and water pipes dating from Gallo-Roman times, as well as older sites of sacred buildings of Celtic civilisation (2 to 3,000 years BC). Standing stones still visible in the region attest to this presence.
This property was acquired by Thierry Valette in 2000. In the wine business for four generations, the Valette family has run vineyards in Algeria, the Languedoc, Vouvray, Chile and the Bordeaux region (including, among others, Château Pavie).
The vineyard has been farmed organically since 2001, even though certification was only begun in 2006 for organic and 2007 for biodynamics. The latter sets the rhythm of the cultivation work and the care given to the wines.
Clos Puy Arnaud produces fine wines that seek to bring out the energy of the fruit and the minerality of the limestone. Extraction is always measured in order to retain fine, elegant tannins.
Clos Puy Arnaud is recognised as one of the most interesting challengers to the Crus Classés of the Right Bank by professionals and consumers alike. These are wines that astonish with their freshness, balance and vitality. They are distributed by the greatest houses to the four corners of the world.
The best care is also given to the Pervenche cuvée (100% Merlot), a fruit-driven wine of medium ageing potential, and to the Bistrot cuvée, a fruit-driven wine in the spirit of a Beaujolais cru.
Clos Puy Arnaud deserves the notion of first growth that the Féret attributed to it in the 19th century in its 1874 edition.