L'Eglise Clinet 2023

The Grand Vin 2023 Château L'Eglise Clinet checks in as 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc that was raised in 82% new French oak. Deep purple-hued, it offers a sensational perfume of ripe black cherries, plums, smoke, tobacco, and chocolate, with some classic Pomerol damp earth and graphite. It's full-bodied on the palate, with a deep, layered mouthfeel, background oak, and a gorgeous finish. This is a heavenly, rich, layered, ultra-classic expression of this château. Don't miss it! It deserves a decade of bottle age and will cruise for 30-40 years. Drink 2034-2064.

The 2023 L'Eglise-Clinet was potentially one of the wines of the vintage after its sublime performance from barrel. Now in bottle since May after maturation in 82% new oak, it has a seamless bouquet, a mixture of red and black fruit, veins of blue fruit mixed with violet and iris petal, hints of black truffle emerging with time. The palate delivers with that intense, quite mineral-driven smorgasbord of red fruit that gently grip the palate. Wonderful backbone, very precise with a sustained finish, this is a brilliant L'Eglise-Clinet from Noëmie Durantou that should give 30 to 40 years' drinking pleasure.

The purity and precision tof this young Eglise Clinet is exceptional, with finesse, intensity and fine tannins that last for minutes on the palate. It grows slowly and then builds and continues. The energy is terrific. Finishes long and confident. All about structure with finesse. The tannins really are refined and tightly woven. 90% merlot and 10% cabernet franc.

A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, L’Eglise-Clinet 2023 has a pH of 3.7. It is deep garnet-purple in color and opens with an initial burst of gregarious fruit, with blueberry preserves and ripe, juicy plums giving way to perfumed waves of lilacs, cinnamon stick, star anise, crushed rocks, and forest floor. The medium to full-bodied palate is tightly coiled at this stage with the taut, intense black and blue fruit core intertwined with minerals and exotic spices, supported by firm, rounded tannins and compelling tension, finishing very long and fragrant. A head-turner!