Château Clerc-Milon
I recall on one of my earliest visits to Bordeaux thinking that I might take a look at Château Clerc-Milon. I had some reason to be interested; I had tasted the wine in all manner of vintages, often alongside that of its cousin Château d’Armailhac, and found that although both had consistent appeal it was often Clerc-Milon that I preferred. I enjoyed what to me seemed to be a rather firm and cool character, a contrast to the more warm and welcoming style of d’Armailhac. And so off I set up the D2, the famed route des châteaux, turning off somewhere near Mousset, north of Pauillac. I had no knowledge of the exact location of the estate, but I knew it was somewhere in this vicinity. And how hard could it be to find what was surely a palatial 19th-century residence of gleaming limestone, surrounded by 40-or-so hectares of vines?
You have probably already guessed what comes next. After an hour of fruitless searching along the back streets of Lhorte, Mousset and Anseillan, the three little villages that lie north of Le Pouyalet on the D2, I finally conceded defeat. Either I had been given dubious information as to the estate’s location, or there was some mystery here. There was, it seemed, no château, not even a little maison that could attempt to fit the bill. There were plenty of vines of course, but whether or not these belonged to Château Clerc-Milon remained an unknown. There were no vineyard markers to indicate ownership, no helpful signs to hint that I might be on the right track. I gave up, but vowed to return another day, and take up the quest once again.
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