Château
la Clarière

Introduction

In 1965, a young Englishman called Tony Laithwaite was in Castillon to study the region’s wines and found lodgings with Monsieur and Madame Cassin in Sainte-Colombe. His hosts introduced him to the world of winemaking and he discovered the vines of Côtes de Castillon. He went on to establish a wine-trading company in the UK, which enjoyed enormous success in the mail order wine sector.

The secret of his success? Going directly to passionate, family-run estates, forging relationships that have lasted for decades, and bringing the best of their wines directly to clients in the UK.

Sainte-Colombe ended up becoming the birthplace of Tony Laithwaite’s company, an estate where all efforts revolve around quality. Château la Clarière uses the best cultivation methods (deleafing, green harvesting, careful vinification, oak ageing).

Philosophy

In 1980, the property was acquired by the La Clarière confreres (Les Confrères de la Clarière), in what was the first participatory investment in the winemaking world. For many years the Castillon area has been overlooked because of its close proximity to its more famous neighbours. Domaines Laithwaite was set up with the core mission of proving that this is simply a political dividing line and has nothing to do with the potential of the wines.