2012 Château Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux

2012 Château Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux

Product: 20128010595
Prices start from £80.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2012 Château Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux

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Description

This small Pomerol Château has crafted a wine which exploits the very best hallmarks of the vintage. Modern and forward in style, it offers pure black cherry, blackberry and blueberry characters alongside an attractive bramble spice. Lifted, succulent and intense, this really is silk in a glass. Fine acidity injects real energy across the palate and the tannins are very fine with the balance exceptional.

Martyn Rolph, Head of Buying, Berry Bros. & Rudd

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Critics reviews

Antonio Galloni, Vinous95/100

The 2012 is 90% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc.

A wine of total precision, the 2012 Clinet possesses striking aromatic nuance and delineation. Crushed flowers, sweet raspberries, herbs and mint flesh out effortlessly, with silky, polished tannins that add to the wine's feel of graciousness. The spherical, beautifully textured finish suggests the 2012 will offer a wide drinking window of pure pleasure over the next 15-20 years. This is impressive. The 2012 is 90% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc.

Drink 2018 - 2032

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (January 2016)

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Ian D'Agata, Vinous90/100

Opaque purple. Very ripe, slightly high-toned aromas of black cherry, roasted plum, licorice and violet, plus a hint of coffee. Supple on entry, then increasingly firm in the middle, but with enough creaminess of texture to the dark berry and spicy oak flavors to avoid seeming excessively over-extracted. Still, this wine's serious tannins currently cut off its fruit, leaving an impression of chunkiness and rigid structure.

Ian D'Agata, Vinous.com (May 2013)

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Jane Anson93/100

Love this, a beautifully characterful wine that is hugely appealing as it opens, the fruit is brambled, gourmet and well crafted, with a generous Pomerol spirit. The tannins have softened their grip at 11 years old. On the edge of ready to drink, a ton of black chocolate and pomegranate, with the slate and crushed rock edge of Clinet. One to look out for. 50% new oak, Ronan Laborde owner.

Drink 2023 - 2042

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (April 2023)

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Wine Advocate91-93/100

The Clinet was started early on 8th September for the young vines, picked at just 12hl/ha and returning on the 14th to tackle the young vines. It was then picked 10th, 20th, 26th and 27th September for the Merlot, the 9th October for the old Merlot vines and the Cabernets the following day. That means it was picked over 32 days, the teams of pickers returning several times to the same plot in order to pick at the optimal ripeness. 

The alcohol level is 13.2%, more the 1-degree less than the 2010 and it was cropped at 34hl/ha. Clinet was expanded in 2011, so the blend is now 90% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc and Ronan told me that he is considering increasing the percentage of Cabernet in the future. There is fine precision on the nose with marine influences – hints of Japanese nori and seashells developing in the glass. 

The palate is medium-bodied and very natural with fine tannins. This is a less hedonistic Clinet for sure, but very well balanced and full of character, perhaps reflecting the terroir with more clarity. With modest length, this is a well-crafted Clinet for medium-term drinking.

Neil Martin, Wine Advocate (May 2013)

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Jancis Robinson MW16+/20

Tasted blind. Light Pomerol meatiness on the nose. Some lift and freshness even if this is not the most complete wine; one has the impression of various elements in it flying off at different angles. Dry finish with notable acidity. Needs food. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, it’s just too young.

Drink 2020 - 2030

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2022)

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James Suckling93/100

Fabulous nose of orange peel, blueberries and blackberries. Full body, firm tannins and a cocoa, cedar and berry finish. Little austere now but so fine. Truly outstanding for the vintage.

Better after 2016

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2015)

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Robert Parker95/100

With a dense purple color and gorgeous levels of fruit, especially black raspberry and blackcurrant, this full-bodied, opulent style of wine is another great success for Clinet, a château that has been on top of its game for the last decade. This is stunning stuff, and whatever new oak has been used – and there is plenty – it is totally disguised by the luxurious and extravagant fruit level. This full-bodied, opulent Pomerol should drink well for 15 or more years.

Drink 2015 - 2030

Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (April 2015)

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Decanter90/100

Intense nose. Dark fruit and chocolate notes. Plump mid-palate. Fresh and lively on the palate. Good length. Harmonious, even a little restrained.

Drink 2019 - 2028

James Lawther, Decanter.com

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Jeb Dunnuck96/100

A wine I've had multiple times, the 2012 Clinet is a rich, beautifully pure effort that has terrific notes of black currants, plums, charred earth, licorice and smoke. Luxuriously textured, full-bodied, impeccably balanced and incredibly sexy on the palate, this is a fabulous Pomerol that I'd happily drink anytime over the coming 15-20 years.

Drink 2016 - 2036

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (October 2018)

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About this WINE

Château Clinet

Château Clinet

Château Clinet is a wine estate in Pomerol on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. It is owned and run by Ronan Laborde and his partner, Monique Bailly. Ronan took the helm here in 2004.

The estate’s 11 hectares of vines sit atop the famed Pomerol plateau. The vineyard is planted to a majority of Merlot (75%), which Ronan feels is highly suited to the plateau’s iron-rich clay soils. There is also 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. Though rare in Pomerol, Cabernet Sauvignon has long been an important aspect of Clinet’s character; it once made up 50% of the vineyard here, Ronan reports.

Clinet came to the attention of many collectors when its 1989 vintage received a 100-point score from the critic Robert Parker; it has remained one of Bordeaux’s most sought-after names ever since. Another perfect Parker score followed for the 2009 vintage.

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Pomerol

Pomerol

Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux's major appellations, with about 150 producers and approximately 740 hectares of vineyards. It is home to many bijou domaines, many of which produce little more than 1,000 cases per annum.

Both the topography and architecture of the region is unremarkable, but the style of the wines is most individual. The finest vineyards are planted on a seam of rich clay which extends across the gently-elevated plateau of Pomerol, which runs from the north-eastern boundary of St Emilion. On the sides of the plateau, the soil becomes sandier and the wines lighter.

For a long time Pomerol was regarded as the poor relation of St Emilion, but the efforts of Jean-Pierre Moueix in the mid-20th century brought the wine to the attention of more export markets, where its fleshy, intense and muscular style found a willing audience, in turn leading to surge in prices led by the demand for such limited quantities.

There is one satellite region to the immediate north, Lalande-de-Pomerol whose wines are stylistically very similar, if sometimes lacking the finesse of its neighbour. There has never been a classification of Pomerol wines.

Recommended Châteaux : Ch. Pétrus, Vieux Ch. Certan, Le Pin, Ch. L’Eglise-Clinet, Ch. La Conseillante, Ch. L’Evangile, Ch. Lafleur, Trotanoy, Ch. Nenin, Ch. Beauregard, Ch. Feytit-Clinet, Le Gay.

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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