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2021 Bordeaux Sec “Les Clous”
Domaine de l'Alliance
It’s easy to forget that Daniel and Valérie Alibrand are Sauternes producers first and foremost, since they’re constantly surprising us with new and unexpected cuvées of racy white wines, like Les Clous. In 2005 they boldly decided to embark on the unknowable journey of making organic wine in an area well known for its challenging climatic conditions—ones that in a good year lead to the noble rot necessary to make fine botrytized wine. When the vintage cooperates, their Sauternes are otherworldly: salty, luscious, long, and savory. In most years, however, disease pressure is high, and since they are not willing to compromise their vineyard practices, they pivot or, in a way, pirouette their way into making vividly aromatic whites. Les Clous epitomizes a nervy, age-worthy wine; it smells remarkably like top-notch Chablis, but on the palate hints at cool and tropical fruits like melon, lychee, and lime. Taut and alluring, it’s made from the most seductive raw material: old-vine Sémillon grown on a stony Bordelais terroir.
—Jane Augustine
Wine Type: | white |
Vintage: | 2021 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Sémillon |
Country: | France |
Region: | Bordeaux |
Producer: | Domaine de l'Alliance |
Vineyard: | Average of 50 years |
Soil: | Gravel, Clay, Sand |
Farming: | Organic (practicing) |
Alcohol: | 13% |
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About The Producer
Domaine de l'Alliance
About The Region
Bordeaux
Often considered the wine capital of the world, Bordeaux and its wines have captured the minds, hearts, and wallets of wine drinkers for centuries. For many, the wines provide an inalienable benchmark against which all other wines are measured.
Bordeaux is divided into three winegrowing regions with the city that gives the region its name in the near geographical center. The “right bank,” or the area located east of the Dordogne River, produces wines that are predominantly Merlot with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The “left bank” is located to the west of the Garonne River and produces wines dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.
The third region, Entre-Deux-Mers, lies between both rivers and produces white wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle. Though technically in the left bank, it is worth noting the appellation of Sauternes, which produces arguably the world’s most famous sweet wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle as well.
Though many top Bordeaux wines are sold en primeur (in advance of their bottling) and often through a middleman known as a negoçiant, Kermit has always preferred to purchase directly from the winemaker. For more than three decades he has sought out small producers, who make classic Bordeaux wines and are willing to play outside the negoçiant system. This ethic has led to longstanding relationships, excellent prices, and perhaps most important—wines of great value and longevity.
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Kermit once said...

Kermit once said...
Living wines have ups and downs just as people do, periods of glory and dog days, too. If wine did not remind me of real life, I would not care about it so much.