Features
Between Inheritance and Identity
Xavier Jean has been a faithful steward of Couvent des Jacobins. But CALICEM is what he made for himself.
1 July 2026
Xavier Jean is based in Singapore, while managing both Couvent des Jacobins and CALICEM in Saint-Émilion. (Photo Credit: Jaclene Liew)
Xavier Jean has been pondering a question ever since he bought the 0.8 hectare plot back in 2014. It was a single plot of old Merlot vines planted in 1961 before he was even born. Sitting on clay-limestone slopes on the southwest amphitheatre of Saint-Émilion, CALICEM shares famous neighbours the likes of Châteaus Angélus and Canon.
It was not as if Xavier did not have his hands full, managing Couvent des Jacobins while having a full-time career in finance, based in Singapore no less. Jean took over management of Couvent des Jacobins from his great-aunt in 2012, exactly 110 years after Jean Jean acquired it.
As the fourth-generation heir, Xavier has gone through great lengths to preserve the family's legacy, while keeping up with time. He sought approval from the family to convert their vineyards to organic farming, no small feat for an estate with fourteen different plots. Together with Denis Pomarède, their estate manager and winemaker, they also started planting Petit Verdot in 2016 in view of the warming climate.
Despite these changes, the style of Couvent des Jacobins has largely remained true to this 700-year-old estate, once cultivated by the monks. "Our labels today are similar to those from the 1940s," Xavier shares. He has been a faithful steward to the family and the estate.
But CALICEM is something else entirely.
The quaint estate sits on just 0.8 hectares and produces a mere 2,000 to 3,000 bottles each vintage, fermented and aged in roughly five oak barrels. Throughout the years since the first vintage in 2015, they worked through barrel sizes of 600L, 500L, and even the 225L barrique before settling on 500L.
Everything is manual in CALICEM. With fewer than 4,000 vines sitting on these crushed limestone-clay slopes, vineyard work and hand harvesting is only the first step. The pigéage is also done by hand. It is, without question, a muscle-demanding job; as I discovered for myself during harvest last year.
"Crafting CALICEM has been a totally new winemaking experience for me," says Denis. With only a few barrels per year, he describes the pressure of small quantities acutely.
