2018 l'Eglise Clinet
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Tasting Notes
This is incredibly powerful with fantastic depth and length. It goes on for minutes. Full-bodied yet so tight and intense. Blackberries and hints of spice. It has such energy and persistence. It is a wine that makes you really reflect. Bravo. Tiny production.
Critic Scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
One of the true “wow” wines in the vintage, the 2018 Château l'Eglise-Clinet is a blockbuster offering stunning notes of black currants, roasted herbs, truffle, earth, and graphite. It's a ripe, voluptuous, and incredibly opulent wine that has full-bodied richness, no hard edges, silky tannins, and gorgeous length. The blend is 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, all harvest in September, and raised in 70% new oak. It has remarkable purity, as well as balance, and will benefit from 5-6 years of bottle age and evolve for two decades or more.
The 2018 L'Eglise-Clinet is a powerful, tightly wound wine. In fact, it is one of the most reticent Pomerols I tasted, which makes it hard to evaluate today but probably bodes extremely well for the future. Dark and brooding in the glass, the 2018 has too much to offer. A wine of real gravitas and power, the 2018 is likely to need the better part of the next decade to open up, and even that probably won't be enough. Spice, leather, lavender, rose petal and tobacco gradually develop in the glass, but what really comes through is the sheer depth and intensity of the year.
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About the producer
Ch. l'Eglise-Clinet is one of the most unassuming wine estates in Bordeaux. You'd probably drive past it if you didn't have prior knowledge of its vinous output. There's no ostentatious gateway nor sweeping gravel drive.