Château Pape-Clément
When it comes to Bordeaux, names often evoke history, especially as over centuries past many châteaux proprietors have followed the common practice of appending their family name to that of their property. The Brown of Château Cantenac-Brown in Margaux and Château Brown in Pessac-Léognan, for example, was none other than John Lewis Brown, an ancestor of the artist of the same name who was famed for his equestrian images. Château Latour has the same effect, although here the name refers not to a person but to a building, the Tor à St-Lambert, the site of one of countless Anglo-French battles during the Hundred Years’ War.
The Graves estate of Château Pape-Clément is another example, and is in fact a rather special one. Here the name is that of Pope Clément V, a French-born clergyman who took the papal office in the early 14th century. Thus the modern-day Château Pape-Clément, these days one of several dozen properties in the ownership of Bernard Magrez, has one of the longest and best documented histories of all Bordeaux châteaux.
Pope Clément V
Clément V was born into the noble De Goth family who held a seat at Villandraut, to the south of Sauternes. The child destined to be pope was named Bertrand.
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