2019 Château Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux

2019 Château Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux

Product: 20198010595
Neal Martin, Vinous97-99/100
Prices start from £500.00 per case Buying options
2019 Château Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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6 x 75cl bottle
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £500.00
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £569.00
3 x 150cl magnum
BBX marketplace BBX 1 case £620.00
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Description

This is a top-notch Clinet. The efforts everywhere in the vines and the cellar over the past decade have been rewarded with a very fine wine that also manages to emphatically express its terroir. The colour is intense and not at all sombre, and that levity extends to the wine's aromas that combine gravel and spice with fresh blueberry. The palate is compact and serious, then lifted by a waft of creamy succulence. In the fine, long finish, the iron of Pomerol reasserts itself. Owner Ronan Laborde believes it’s one of the château’s best ever vintages. Drink 2026-2040. Blend: 80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon
Mark Pardoe MW, Wine Director

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Critics reviews
Neal Martin, Vinous97-99/100
The 2019 Clinet is just so fragrant on the nose: black and red fruit vying for attention, iris and incense, touches of truffle in the background. The purity that Ronan Laborde and his team have achieved should be applauded. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins, perfect acidity, brilliant focus and a killer sense of tension on the finish. This is a stunning Clinet, the best that I have encountered in barrel over 20 years of tasting. That creamy texture takes your breath away. Up there with the very best - a Clinet that rivets you to the spot. 2025 - 2060
Neal Martin, Vinous (June 2020)
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About this WINE
Chateau Clinet

Chateau Clinet

Château Clinet is a small Pomerol property that has leapt to prominence in the last 15 years and now produces one of the most sought-after wines in the region. The 9-hectare vineyard is on top of one of the finest plateaux in Pomerol and is planted with Merlot (80%), Cabernet Sauvignon (10%) and Cabernet Franc (10%).

In the 1980s Jean-Michel Arcaute married Clinet's proprietor George Audy's daughter and by 1986 Jean Michel was running the property. He engaged the services of cult oenologist Michel Rolland, who introduced much later harvesting, ensuring super-ripe fruit, as well as extending the amount of time the wines spent in 100% new oak barriques. Within 5 years, Clinet's wine were being compared to those of Pétrus, Lafleur and Le Pin, and selling for similar prices.

Clinet produces a wine which is concentrated and rich but is supremely well balanced with a finish that lasts and lasts. It is hard to resist when young, yet the wines from the best vintages will continue to improve for over 10 years. Jean-Michel Arcaute was tragically killed in a boating accident in 2001.

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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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