2011 Château Clerc Milon, Pauillac, Bordeaux

2011 Château Clerc Milon, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Product: 20111008212
 
2011 Château Clerc Milon, Pauillac, Bordeaux

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Description

Ch. Clerc-Milon is not usually a powerhouse of a Pauillac, yet this year it not only delivers qualitatively but also in presence. Fine, elegant, rich, dense, textured and bursting with blackcurrants and cassis, given a little time in barrel this should intensify, provide oodles of complexity and age gracefully. Pauillac has provided a host of very good wines this year but for me, this is punches well above its weight.
(Jake Dean, Berrys’ Fine Wine Sales Director)

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate89-91+/100
Administrator Philippe Dalhuin told me this property (100 acres) has 240 separate parcels, which must make the strategy of harvesting a nightmare. Composed of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and a dollop of Petit Verdot, the 2011 Clerc Milon is more tannic, tightly knit and structured than its sister chateau, dArmailhac. With more acidity showing, it performed as if it had just come off malolactic fermentation. Possessing a dense color along with copious notes of new saddle leather, black currants, mocha and wood spice, it will require several years of bottle age, and should keep well for 15+ years.
(Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - April 2012) Read more
Wine Spectator90-93/100
Displays a strong tobacco leaf edge from the start, along with smoke and singed balsam wood notes, all weaving around a core of dark plum and black cherry fruit. A touch firm in the end right now, but shows very good range.
Wine Spectator's 2011 Top-Scoring Red Bordeaux
(James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, April 10, 2012) Read more
Robert Parker89-91+/100
Administrator Philippe Dalhuin told me this property (100 acres) has 240 separate parcels, which must make the strategy of harvesting a nightmare. Composed of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and a dollop of Petit Verdot, the 2011 Clerc Milon is more tannic, tightly knit and structured than its sister chateau, dArmailhac. With more acidity showing, it performed as if it had just come off malolactic fermentation. Possessing a dense color along with copious notes of new saddle leather, black currants, mocha and wood spice, it will require several years of bottle age, and should keep well for 15+ years.
(Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - April 2012) Read more
Decanter17/20
Firm deep colour and fine briary spice nose, very good depth, very Pauillac, full of character and potential complexity. Read more

About this WINE

Château Clerc Milon

Château Clerc Milon

Classified as a Fifth Growth in 1855, Château Clerc Milon is one of a trinity of Pauillac classified growths owned by the Baron Philippe de Rothschild family. Baron Philippe began renovation and restoration here in 1970 – work that was later championed by his daughter Baroness Philippine until her death in 2014.

Baroness Philippine’s children, Camille and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, now continue their mother’s legacy. In recent times, the estate has flourished under the careful stewardship of Director Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy. In 2020, his role expanded to include Château Mouton Rothschild and Château d’Armailhac and the talented winemaker Caroline Artaud joined the team at Château Clerc Milon in the capacity of Director.

Château Clerc Milon’s vineyard holdings – 41 hectares – neighbour two first growths. More than half of the vines are Cabernet Sauvignon (51.5%), with the remainder being Merlot (37%), Cabernet Franc (8%), Petit Verdot (2%) and Carmenère (1.5%). The vines have an average age of 48 years. Harvesting here is done by hand.

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Pauillac

Pauillac

Pauillac is the aristocrat of the Médoc boasting boasting 75 percent of the region’s First Growths and with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of Pauillac's production.

For a small town, surrounded by so many familiar and regal names, Pauillac imparts a slightly seedy impression. There are no grand hotels or restaurants – with the honourable exception of the establishments owned by Jean-Michel Cazes – rather a small port and yacht harbour, and a dominant petrochemical plant.

Yet outside the town, , there is arguably the greatest concentration of fabulous vineyards throughout all Bordeaux, including three of the five First Growths. Bordering St Estèphe to the north and St Julien to the south, Pauillac has fine, deep gravel soils with important iron and marl deposits, and a subtle, softly-rolling landscape, cut by a series of small streams running into the Gironde. The vineyards are located on two gravel-rich plateaux, one to the northwest of the town of Pauillac and the other to the south, with the vines reaching a greater depth than anywhere else in the Médoc.

Pauillac's first growths each have their own unique characteristics; Lafite Rothschild, tucked in the northern part of Pauillac on the St Estèphe border, produces Pauillac's most aromatically complex and subtly-flavoured wine. Mouton Rothschild's vineyards lie on a well-drained gravel ridge and - with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon - can produce (in its best years) Pauillac's most decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.

Latour, arguably Bordeaux's most consistent First Growth, is located in southern Pauillac next to St Julien. Its soil is gravel-rich with superb drainage, and Latour's vines penetrate as far as five metres into the soil. It produces perhaps the most long-lived wines of the Médoc.

Recommended Châteaux
Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, Ch. Latour, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch. Lynch-Bages, Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Ch, Pontet-Canet, Les Forts de Latour, Ch. Haut-Batailley, Ch. Batailley, Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral.

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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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