2021 Château Guillot Clauzel, Pomerol, Bordeaux

2021 Château Guillot Clauzel, Pomerol, Bordeaux

Product: 20218124155
Prices start from £77.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2021 Château Guillot Clauzel, Pomerol, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

The 2021 Guillot-Clauzel comes from the two hectares picked from September 27 to October 6 and matured in 50% new oak. Like the VCC, the Cabernet Franc comes through quite strongly on the nose, with touches of gravel and loam and hints of blue fruit emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied and finely defined with sappy black fruit laced with liquorice, building toward a structured finish and leaving a long, peppery aftertaste.

Drink 2026 - 2036

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (February 2024)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous92/100

The 2021 Guillot-Clauzel comes from the two hectares picked from September 27 to October 6 and matured in 50% new oak. Like the VCC, the Cabernet Franc comes through quite strongly on the nose, with touches of gravel and loam and hints of blue fruit emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied and finely defined with sappy black fruit laced with liquorice, building toward a structured finish and leaving a long, peppery aftertaste.

Drink 2026 - 2036

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (February 2024)

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Antonio Galloni, Vinous93/100

The 2021 Guillot-Clauzel turned out beautifully. It shows terrific depth and tons of character, with no hard edges and fine balance. The oak, once an issue here, is impeccably integrated, but the 2021 also has surprising complexity. Black cherry, plum, lavender, liquorice and spice fill out the layers. Guillot-Clauzel remains a rather stocky Pomerol, but the progress here in recent years has been remarkable.

Drink 2029 - 2051

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (February 2024)

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Wine Advocate93/100

Produced by Guilluame Thienpont, it's a blend of 20% Cabernet Franc and 80% Merlot.

Bottled without fining, the 2021 Guillot Clauzel offers up aromas of blackberries and cherries mingled with hints of mint, pencil shavings and orange zest. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with a generous core of pure, succulent fruit that's framed by melting tannins, it concludes with a long, saline finish.

Drink 2025 - 2041

William Kelley, Wine Advocate (February 2024)

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James Suckling92-93/100

80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc.

It is a polished and refined wine with a lovely sweetness of fruit in the centre palate for the vintage—medium body. Juicy fruit.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (June 2022)

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Decanter94/100

Perfumed nose, something mineral about the scent, stoney with lots of cherry aromas. Smooth and alive, a nice upfront brightness to this - shiny but sleek. Crunchy fruit, clean, but this has texture, too and a real mineral undertone. You can feel the tension; it’s straight and well-defined, to the point, long and piercing. A very good wine that’s interesting and characterful. It is nuanced with tomato leaf and spiced accents around the sides—a clean and easy-to-enjoy wine made by Guillaume Thienpont.

Drink 2026 - 2045

Georgina Hindle, Decanter.com (December 2023)

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About this WINE

Château Guillot-Clauzel

Château Guillot-Clauzel

Château Guillot-Clauzel is a family-owned wine producer in the Pomerol appellation of Bordeaux, France. The property has been in the hands of the Guillot family for many years; Bernard Guillot brought the Clauzel name into the estate by marrying Marie-Claude Clauzel in the 1970s. The couple's union combined the two family names, leading to the formation of Guillot-Clauzel.

A mix of clay and limestone soils characterises the terroir. This unique combination contributes to producing wines with remarkable complexity and structure. Merlot is the dominant grape variety grown on the property, reflecting the region's traditional style, where Merlot-based blends are prevalent.

Guillot-Clauzel is known for its commitment to traditional winemaking practices and a focus on producing wines that express the essence of their terroir. The estate follows sustainable and environmentally friendly viticultural practices, ensuring the health of the vineyards and the surrounding ecosystem.

The winemaking process involves careful selection of grapes, gentle handling, and ageing in a combination of French oak barrels to enhance the wine's character and complexity. The result is elegant, well-structured wines that can age gracefully over time.

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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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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.