2022 Château l'Eglise-Clinet, Pomerol, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
The 2022 L'Eglise-Clinet was picked from 3 to 9 September for the Merlot and the Cabernet Franc on 5 and 9 September, matured in 85% new oak. It has an exquisitely-defined bouquet with brief floral, pressed iris and clay notes percolating through the black fruit. With breathtaking focus, these scents seem to cast a spell over you.
The palate is medium-bodied with slightly chalky tannins that frame the mineral-laden, peppery black fruit. There's not a hair out of place, exuding the essence of this Pomerol estate with an exceptionally long, intense and paradoxically tender finish. It's a wine that may leave you spellbound...just like this barrel sample.
Drink 2032 - 2075
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2023)
The 2022 L'Eglise-Clinet is fabulous. Rich, deep and layered, with tremendous purity, the 2022 is already exceptionally well balanced. Dark fruit, gravel, liquorice, dried herbs and lavender emerge, but only with great reluctance.
Even so, there is something incredibly complete about the 2022 that is hard to describe with words, but it is most definitely there! L'Eglise-Clinet is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage on the Right Bank.
Drink 2030 - 2052
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (April 2023)
A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, with a pH of 3.6, L’Eglise Clinet 2022 was picked between the 3rd and 9th of September and is ageing in 85% new oak.
It has a deep garnet-purple colour, and after a swirl or two, vibrant notes of crushed black plums, boysenberry preserves, and lilacs soar from the glass, followed by hints of menthol, wood smoke, crushed rocks, and sandalwood.
Medium to full-bodied, the palate is electric, delivering energetic black fruit and mineral layers with a firm, fine-grained texture and lovely tension, finishing long and earthy. Very seductive!
Drink 2029 - 2059
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent (May 2023)
Turns the intensity and exoticism of the vintage on its head, unpacking it carefully and layering up depth and character. Grilled cedar, fleshy damson, and cassis fruits are all about carefully-considered and delivered juice and flavour.
Intense, with balance, carefully-extracted juice, and the precision you want at L'Eglise Clinet, even in such an overwhelming vintage. 85% new oak, harvest September 3 to 9. Noemie Durantou and Olivier Gautrat.
Drink 2030 - 2050
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (May 2023)
Offering up deep aromas of mulberries and cassis mingled with incense, liquorice, rose petals, spices and hints of new oak, the 2022 L'Eglise Clinet is full-bodied, deep and layered, with an elegantly muscular core of ripe but vibrant fruit that's framed by sweet, powdery tannins.
Concentrated and multidimensional, it concludes with a long, resonant finish. A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, harvested between September 3 and 9, this compelling Pomerol checks in at a largely concealed 14.6% alcohol.
William Kelley, Wine Advocate (June 2023)
A wonderful expression of fruit, the aroma of an explosion of floral-violet notes. Huge density on the palate and the tannins are silky and very long. Lingers on the finish. Fresh, harmonious and definitely for the long haul.
Drink 2032 - 2050
James Lawther MW, JancisRobinson.com (April 2023)
A delicious take on the vintage with power and seduction delivered delicately with purity and refinement. Gorgeous florality and aromatic expression on the nose combining fruity blackcurrants and violets with sweet milk chocolate, salted caramel and liquorice.
Juicy and succulent on the palate, supple with well-integrated tannins that support the concentrated fruit but also deliver coolness and freshness throughout. Not dense at all but still has a generous weight with direction and focus. Graceful and characterful, not pushed but delivering everything you want with minerality also at the fore. Already so approachable, too; it’s a wine I wanted to drink and finish in situ.
A yield of 32hl/ha. Aged in 60% new oak barrels. Harvest 31 August - 7 September.
Drink 2030 - 2050
Georgina Hindle, Decanter.com (April 2023)
Straight-up gorgeous, I'd put the 2022 Château L'Eglise-Clinet up with the top-tier Pomerol in the vintage, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it surpass the 2020 as well. Ripe black cherries, violets, spring flowers, graphite, and tobacco all emerge on the nose, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a layered, elegant mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and an excellent finish.
Compared to the 2005 by owner Noëmie Durantou (who has done an incredible job taking over the estate after the loss of her father), this rich, concentrated, incredibly impressive Pomerol is going to need 7-8 years of bottle age but will evolve for 30 years in cold cellars.
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (May 2023)
About this WINE
Chateau l'Eglise-Clinet
Château L'Eglise-Clinet is now amongst the elite of Pomerol producers. Its vineyards were originally part of Château Clinet and Château Clos l`Eglise respectively, and the property came into being in the 1950s.
L'Eglise-Clinet has been owned and run by Denis Durantou since 1982. Its 5.5 hectares of vineyards are located on the Pomerol plateau, where the soils are rich in gravel, clay, sand and iron. The vines have a high average age of around 45 years, with a proportion of them dating back to pre-1956, having escaped the brutal frosts of that year.
L'Eglise-Clinet's wine is typically a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. The grapes are vinified in a combination of concrete vats and stainless steel vats. The wine is then aged in small oak barriques (50-70% new) for 18 months.
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.
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.
Merlot
The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.
In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.
Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.
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Description
The 2022 L'Eglise-Clinet was picked from 3 to 9 September for the Merlot and the Cabernet Franc on 5 and 9 September, matured in 85% new oak. It has an exquisitely-defined bouquet with brief floral, pressed iris and clay notes percolating through the black fruit. With breathtaking focus, these scents seem to cast a spell over you.
The palate is medium-bodied with slightly chalky tannins that frame the mineral-laden, peppery black fruit. There's not a hair out of place, exuding the essence of this Pomerol estate with an exceptionally long, intense and paradoxically tender finish. It's a wine that may leave you spellbound...just like this barrel sample.
Drink 2032 - 2075
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2023)
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