Chateau Clinet 2010

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "If you are seeking a thrill ride, and Pomerol is your type of thrill, look no further. This is pure bottled decadence. The wine is silky, sexy, sensuous and concentrated. There is a beautiful purity in the fruit and a finish that could break the 50-second mark. And the wine still sells for a song for a wine at this level of quality."

JAMES SUCKLING: "Gorgeous nose with lots of dark fruit like plum and blueberries. Crushed pepper and chalk with wild strawberries and vanilla. Dense and velvety on the palate with superbly polished tannins and great depth. It's absolutely gorgeous now but needs at least five to six years of bottle age to really shows its great quality."

DECANTER: "The definition of poised and confident, this has pretty much consistently delivered since the very first taste during En Primeur. Deeply layered, textured, confident and powerful, both very Pomerol and very 2010. Coffee beans and bitter chocolate are the dominant flavours alongside cassis and blackberry autumnal berry fruits. Both gourmet and restrained. Just about ready to go but will hugely benefit from three to four hours in carafe first, and will further improve over the next few years, and indeed over the decades to come. Drinking Window 2020 - 2045"

JEB DUNNUCK: "The 2010 Clinet is a baby, but man, what a wine. Checking in as mostly Merlot, with small amounts of both Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, this deep ruby/purple-tinged beauty gives up fresh, tight aromas of blackcurrants, black cherries, damp earth and forest floor, with its background oak buffered by serious amounts of fruit. Full-bodied, concentrated and deep, yet also elegant and layered, with the freshness, purity, and structure of the vintage, it sings even today with a decant, but is best with a few more year of bottle age. It’s going to keep for 2-3 decades."

FALSTAFF: "Dunkles Rubingranat, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Mit feiner Edelholzwürze unterlegte schwarze Beerenfrucht, feine Nuancen von Brombeeren und Lakritze, zart nach Mandarinen, facettenreiches Bukett. Saftig, engmaschig und süß, feine Tannine, bleibt sehr gut haften, besitzt großen Charme und Länge, sicheres Reifepotenzial."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Deep garnet colored, the 2010 Clinet rolls sensuously out of the glass with notes of Black Forest cake, blueberry compote and plum preserves plus hints of cigar box, cardamom and cloves. Medium to full-bodied, the palate reveals pleasant poise with loads of savory sparks on the finish."

WINE SPECTATOR: "This showy, packed and well-endowed Pomerol pumps out notes of warm linzer torte, plum preserves and blackberry reduction, all supported by a broad, charcoal- and ganache-coated structure and deeply embedded acidity. Very muscular on the back end, this boasts a still-chewy feel. Among the most backward of the 2010 Pomerols, this requires significant cellaring. For those who enjoy more power than subtlety. Best from 2017 through 2035."

WEINWISSER: "85 % Merlot, 12 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 3 % Cabernet Franc. Ertrag: 37 hl/ha. Extrem dunkles Purpur mit violetten Reflexen. Warmes, ausladendes Bouquet, extrem viel verschwenderische Brombeernoten und Lakritze, Kandissüsse. Im Gaumen cremig, recht zugänglich, ohne das Potenzial zu schmälern. Kein Riese, aber auf üppige Eleganz setzend."

WINE ENTHUSIAST: "2-94 New wood mint aromas give this wine its great polished feel. The tannins offer a counterpoint of richness here, firm and dense. The fruit takes a while to show through, then brings the fine plum skin flavors suffusing through the wine."