Clairette around the world: 53 shining examples

If Grenache is the king of southern Rhône reds, then what is the region’s star white variety? Grenache Blanc may be the most widely planted, but I would argue the case for Clairette, or Clairette Blanche to use its full name. Clairette is usually found in blends, but I’ve been encountering pure Clairette increasingly frequently.

To get a clearer impression of the grape, I tasted as many wines as I could find that contain at least 80% Clairette. I was expecting to find 10, perhaps 20. I ended up with 70 (12 notes were published in Decanter’s November 2022 magazine, with an additional 41 for Decanter Premium).

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for a selection of Clairette wines to try from around the world

Tough and beautiful

It’s not an aromatic grape, but it nonetheless has a floral softness and a deeply Provençal character; it’s richly textured, with a full, luxurious consistency that’s balanced by deep-set, if gentle acidity. It also performs well in hot climates – which might explain why its star is in the ascendant, not just in France, but around the world.

Clairette originates from southern France, and today it’s grown mainly in the southern Rhône. Its name might refer to its pale-yellow berries, but it could also be because of the light underside of its leaves. Once grown in huge volumes here, plantings have declined in recent years, but thanks to its resilience in the vineyard, it’s ripe for a comeback.

‘It’s a real southern French variety that’s very well adapted to hot, dry weather’, says Louis Barruol of Château de Saint Cosme in Gigondas. He adds that it’s easy to cultivate, an opinion echoed by Jacques de Klerk of Radford Dale in Stellenbosch, South Africa. ‘It’s one of the easiest varieties to grow,’ says de Klerk, who appreciates its resistance to disease and its strong trunks that don’t require trellising systems.

Eric Bonnet of La Bastide Saint Dominique in Châteauneuf-du-Pape makes an unusual example of pure Clairette Rose (Rose, not Rosé), a pink-skinned mutation of Clairette Blanche. Comparing the two ‘cousins’, as he dubs them, Clairette Blanche is ‘more discreet, and can be austere when young… it takes time to show itself ’. By comparison, Clairette Rose is ‘more immediately expressive’, he says. ‘It has the same qualities, but is a bit more aromatic.’ He admits a marginal preference for the rare, fragrant Rose.

Clairette thrives on a variety of soils. It’s happy on clay limestone, does well in sand, and excels on the galets roulés of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Isabel Ferrando, proprietor of Domaine Saint-Préfert, stresses the importance of the picking date; it is late-ripening and rarely strays above 13.5% alcohol, but only has moderate acidity so it’s prone to flabbiness if picked too late.

Despite its mild acidity, Clairette does have a good sense of freshness, coming from its cooling silkiness and breezy aromatics. Though never strongly scented, it often displays fresh florals, clean fennel, pithy grapefruit and occasionally pear or apple. It does, however, have ‘a wonderful texture’, says de Klerk, thanks to the tannins in its skins, and ‘a savoury element, a little bitterness… think of how a G&T is a bit bitter, or a beer’.

As a winemaker, de Klerk appreciates its flexibility. ‘It’s a very malleable grape; it responds incredibly well to winemaking input,’ he says. He opts for a light, crisp style without oak ageing, whereas others, such as Château de Vaudieu in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, opt for a proportion of new oak barrels. It responds well to both approaches, but it can be prone to rubbery reductive notes if not handled with care.

Rhône expressions

Two-thirds of the wines I tasted were from the southern Rhône, and expressions varied wildly. Its most northerly outpost is the Diois, a mountainous region on the Drôme river between the northern and southern Rhône. This is home to the sweet sparkling Clairette de Die – which is, confusingly, made of Muscat! Crémant de Die, however, is made with a majority of Clairette.

Given its moderate acidity, it’s not an obvious choice for sparkling wine production. Frédéric Raspail of Domaine Jean-Claude Raspail et Fils points out that early picking can help, and that they also blend in a little Aligoté, which has higher acidity.

What Clairette does bring, however, is aroma – ‘brioche and white flowers’, according to Raspail.

There is also an appellation for still, dry, pure Clairette in the Diois, called Coteaux de Die. It’s by far the smallest appellation in the Rhône at only 1.3ha – fewer than 7,000 bottles were made in 2021 (Inter Rhône, 2021) – but the natural purity of some of these wines suggests that the future of Clairette in the Diois may lie in its still wines, rather than sparkling.

There is another pure Clairette appellation in the southern Rhône, this time at its southernmost point. Located at the heart of Costières de Nîmes, Clairette de Bellegarde is barely larger than Coteaux de Die, but again, despite its size, the quality can be remarkable. Compared with the airy, floral, still Clairettes of the Diois, Clairette de Bellegarde is fuller and more resonant with deep pear, quince and almond. It also ages surprisingly well given its lack of acidity, taking on petrol notes akin to an aged Riesling.

Proving equally ageworthy was a recently opened bottle of Chante Cigale’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc 1993 – a blend of 60% Clairette with 40% Roussanne, it still had plenty of life and interest. Many of the very best pure Clairettes come from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in fact. It’s an assertive terroir that makes a powerful style, but the best preserve the aerial freshness that makes this variety so appealing.

There are other promising sites in the southern Rhône, particularly the high-altitude clay limestone slopes of Gigondas. ‘It’s a soil in which Clairette shows a lot of finesse and a climate that favours great, well-balanced whites,’ says Barruol. ‘In our microclimate, it can be ripe at 12.5% or 13% alcohol.’ Members of the Gigondas growers’ syndicate are celebrating a successful application to include white wines in the appellation.

Further afield

Outside the Rhône, the best-represented region is the Languedoc in the south. The Clairette du Languedoc appellation lies to the west of Montpellier, and for a small AP – 100ha of vineyards, compared with Fitou, for example, with its 2,600ha (suddefrancewinehub.com) – it makes a cornucopia of different styles, from dry to medium-sweet to dessert wines. The more concentrated examples don’t always find an easy balance, but there are some lovely lighter styles that offer outstanding value for money.

Pure Clairette is rare outside France, but all the examples I tasted were impressive. The two from South Africa were at either end of the ripeness spectrum; one light and gluggable, the other full and rich. The Clairettes from the USA were in a soft, yielding, approachable mould, accentuating its floral nature rather than its opulence. Those from Australia articulated the lighter side of the grape, coming in at 11% and 12.4% alcohol.

Cool-climate white grapes such as Chenin Blanc and Riesling are known for their versatility. Clairette is that rare example of a versatile hot-climate white grape. It works well in a blend, but has proven itself as a single varietal too. It can make a host of styles, it’s open to numerous winemaking options, and it’s not too picky about soil types. That said, it doesn’t appear to reflect terroir with quite the same precision as, say, Chardonnay; but there are certainly broader regional styles to explore.

With its rich, full-bodied nature, delicate bitter side and aromatic reserve, Clairette will never be the most popular kid in class – bottled pure, it’s one for committed wine lovers. But given its love of hot, dry climates, I predict we’ll soon be seeing more iterations of this peerlessly Provençal white grape.

See all 53 Clairette tasting notes and scores

Matt Walls’ picks: a taste of Clairette wines from around the world

The list below features all five sparkling wines, plus all wines that scored 93 points or above

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