L'Eglise Clinet 2006

Bright ruby-red. Knockout nose combines dark berries and black cherry, licorice pastille, truffle, tobacco and sexy oak spices. Lush and sweet but with superb freshness and underlying structure. The wine's combination of suavity, backbone and compelling mineral-driven perfume is why I often find it hard to take merlot seriously when it's not grown on the Pomerol plateau. Finishes silky and very long. This has turned out splendidly.

Lots of concentrated flavours, the black plum are overlaid with bramble and bilberry. The richness of the fruit is balanced by firmer tannins ensuring that the sweetness is not overly sticky but mouthfillingly rich.

Potentially the wine of the vintage, proprietor Denis Durantou has fashioned a profound 2006 of great intensity and complexity. Its intense purple hue is accompanied by a glorious nose of melted red and black fruits, spring flowers, truffles, and spice. With massive concentration as well as intensity, but no hard edges, it is a tour de force in winemaking. Multilayered, with incredibly texture and purity as well as a finish that lasts over 60 seconds, this brilliant Pomerol should be accessible in 3-4 years, and last for three decades or more. Bravo!

Tasted at the château. Denis Durantou was open enough to forewarn me about the freshness of the sample that he poured for me. Indeed, it was lacking the vigour I expected; therefore two samples are assessed directly from barrel. The new barrel is dominated by new oak on the nose (quel surprise!) but the palate is beautifully poised, not dissimilar to Le Pin, with breathtaking definition and balletic precision. The one drawn from a one-year old barrel was even better, a slightly gamey nose with immense purity and vigour followed by a crisp, powerful palate with an intensity of fruit that you simple have to taste for yourself. A touch of black olives toward the finish. Not as showy or exuberant as the 2005, much more introverted but no less compelling and essential. Tasted April 2007.

Expressive, pure aromas of ripe black raspberry, coffee, licorice, chocolate, menthol and flowers. Densely packed and in need of air but not at all tough or dry. Wonderfully vibrant and juicy wine) what a pleasure to sample tight-grained, minerally merlot with real backbone. Finishes very long, with firm tannins and terrific lift.