Does the Chez Clément cellar have a Bordeaux influence?

Question

Lorenzo Eeman · Accepted Answer

Yes, the Bordeaux influence on Chez Clément's cellar is documented. The wine bar was opened in 1976 by third-generation Marcel and Andrée Clément, with a deliberate Bordeaux accent. Fifty years on, that orientation still structures the list.

The Bordeaux influence on Chez Clément's cellar is a documented part of the house's heritage. The third generation of the family, Marcel and Andrée Clément (1954-1996), opened the wine bar in 1976. This opening became a structural moment in the brasserie's history: the house stopped being purely a beer-and-food brasserie and added a serious wine identity. The direction chosen by Marcel was unmistakable: a pronounced taste for Bordeaux, in step with the classical French wine culture that dominated the Brussels and Walloon Brabant dining scene throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Bordeaux offers an exceptional reading grid for a brasserie cellar. The red Bordeaux, built on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blends, sometimes Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot or Malbec, covers a remarkable range of food pairings: red meats, game, slow-cooked stews, aged cheeses. The tannic structure of Cabernet Sauvignon pairs naturally with the autumn game served at Chez Clément, while the rounder Merlot is a magnificent partner for carbonnade flamande, for white meats, and for the country dishes of the brasserie repertoire.

Inside Bordeaux, the appellations classically represented in a tradition-led cellar include Saint-Émilion (Merlot-dominant, supple, food-friendly), Pomerol (almost pure Merlot, refined and noble), the Médoc with its six communal appellations (Margaux, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Saint-Estèphe, Listrac-Médoc, Moulis-en-Médoc), Pessac-Léognan (serious whites and reds) and Sauternes (the great botrytised sweet whites for blue cheese and foie gras). Property wines and Crus Bourgeois complete the palette below the classified-growth tier and offer real value-for-quality.

Today, the fifth generation, Marie and Gilles Verleyen, who took over from France Clément in 2021, continues this Bordeaux-led tradition inherited from Marcel. The cellar's centre of gravity is still recognisably Bordeaux, while opening up to the other great French regions (Burgundy, Rhône, Loire, Alsace) and selected European appellations (Italy, Spain). The exact current references on the list evolve with each year's allocations and vintages, and the service team is the right point of contact for identifying the perfect Bordeaux match with a given dish.