The first traces of viticulture, on the land that today belongs to Château CLINET, date back to 1614 under the ownership of the GOMBAULT family. Bertrand de GOMBAULT who inherited the land from his father, was known as Seigneur de Pontus. He was also the Mayor of Libourne, in 1685. The family owned parts of CLINET right up until 1831. Although the lay of the land was not exactly as it is today, the estate passed from the GOMBAULT family, who were eventually ruined, to the ARNAUD family in 1825. Catherine Henriette ARNAUD married Elie Désiré CONSTANT, an important wine merchant who, as a widower, shared the property between his 4 children.

After 1879, Château CLINET changed hands several times before becoming the bijou estate of the LUQUOT/AUDY family in 1908. George AUDY, the son of Germaine LUQUOT and Jean-Louis AUDY, looked after CLINET along with his son in-law, Jean-Michel ARCAUTE. In 1991, after George AUDY’s death, CLINET was sold to a French Insurance company GAN, and was still run by Jean-Michel ARCAUTE. The latter marked a real turning point. He improved the wine by revolutionising the way the vineyard was being managed, replanting with merlot instead of cabernets and introducing hand-harvesting, manual selection and a longer cuvaison. With the support of Michel Rolland, Jean-Michel’s hard work paid off when the name Clinet was put back on the map after receiving rapturous acclaim from critics in 1989 (receiving 100/100 from Robert Parker) & 1990. 

Groupe Clinet 
4 Chemin de Bourgneuf
33500 Pomerol
Frankreich / France