Chateau L´Eglise Clinet 2020

LISA PERROTTI-BROWN: "The 2020 L'Eglise-Client, made from 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, is deep garnet-purple in color. It opens with wonderfully fragrant notes of violets, dark chocolate, aniseed, and forest floor, leading to a core of preserved plums and black cherry preserves, plus a touch of cast-iron pan. The medium to full-bodied palate explodes with tons of juicy black fruit layers, supported by velvety tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long with a whole array of baking spice, black berry, and minerally accents."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "A clear candidate for wine of the vintage, this show stopping gem kicks off with a vivid perfume packed with flowers, plums, truffles, chocolate, smoke, cigar wrapper, and cherry liqueur scents. The wine delivers intensity, finesse, concentration, richness, purity and complexity. The finish, with its layers of dark chocolate covered ripe plums, velvety textures, and sensuality is completely seamless, holding your palate hostage for at least 60 seconds. Give it some time and this could easily hit 100 Pts down the road, it is that good. Drink from 2027-2060."

JEB DUNNUCK: "There's a clear jump from the second wine to the 2020 Château L'Eglise Clinet, a riveting Pomerol that checks in as 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc that spent 18 months in 80% new French oak. Offering a restrained, yet concentrated, structured style, it reveals classic notes of red and black currants, leafy tobacco, loamy earth, and chocolate. This carries to a full-bodied, powerful, tannic 2020 that needs a solid 7-8 years of bottle age. It's going to be long-lived but is not for those seeking instant gratification."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 L'Eglise Clinet wafts from the glass with aromas of dark berries, mulberries, cherries and cassis mingled with notions of espresso roast, loamy soil, violets and truffle framed by creamy new oak. Full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's a rich, youthfully firm, muscularly constructed young Pomerol that will richly reward bottle age."

DECANTER: "Smooth and silky, rich for sure, you know you're in Pomerol in a ripe vintage with just-chewy tannins but that also have a cooling, crisp edge. Lots of herbal nuances and some bitterness in the coffee, black chocolate, clove and tobacco nuances but there’s good acidity and vibrancy overall. Really well controlled and delivered, retaining a sense of punchy classicism balancing richness, freshness, delicacy and plushness."

FALSTAFF: "Floral, Traubenzucker, Kirschen, auch Cocktailkirsche. Floral. Im Mund cremig, très souple, saftig, sehr rund, ganz feines Tannin, das dennoch Kontur hat, dazu eine auf natürliche Weise integrierte Säure, lange homogen bleibende, klare und frische Abgangsfrucht. Zum Kauen, aber dies im weichen Sinn. Schokoladiger Abklang mit Länge, begleitet von mineralischer Kraft. Ein Wein voller Fülle, Feinheit und unerzwungener Harmonie."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Dense and profound, the fruit savoury and pure. Profuse on attack, the fruit bursting on the palate with layered, fine-grain tannins in support. Purity and precision, the detail spot-on, the tannins of the finest weave. Great potential. "