Chateau L´Eglise Clinet 2016

JEB DUNNUCK: "One of the monumental wines in the vintage is the 2016 Château Eglise Clinet from proprietor Denis Durantou. Based on 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, this utterly perfect wine boasts a saturated purple color as well as an essence of Pomerol bouquet of ripe black cherries, blackcurrant liqueur, smoked tobacco, camphor, and graphite. Deep, full-bodied, incredibly powerful, and layered, yet always with class and balance, it offers a remarkable marriage of power and finesse. It’s already sexy and seductive yet also a baby, and needs 7-8 years of cellaring. It should keep for 3-4 decades (probably longer), but why wait?"

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Truffles, wet earth, smoke, tobacco, licorice, espresso, chocolate covered black cherry and plum aromatics create the perfume. The wine is full bodied, concentrated and powerful. It is also refined, silky, elegant and velvety. This is Pomerol opulence at its best, with the right amount of flesh and freshness to balance everything out."

JAMES SUCKLING: "This has so much violet and black-olive character to it. It’s full-bodied and powerful with incredible power and depth of old-vine tannins. It just rolls on and on. What a finish."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "The 2016 L'Eglise Clinet has a medium to deep garnet-purple color with aromas of warm black cherries, mulberries and Black Forest cake slipping seductively from the glass plus nuances of rose hip tea, baking spices, fragrant soil and fallen leaves. Medium to full-bodied, it's wonderfully elegant in the mouth with fantastically plush tannins and seamless freshness, finishing very long and very perfumed. Beautiful!"

DECANTER: "We are now levitating somewhere above the rest of Denis Durantou's excellent range. Typical of the incredibly deft and precise way of working that is his signature, this wine brings cinammon and clove then hugely deep, rich dark fruits. Utterly elegant, it completes a circuit around your mouth. This is a physical reaction to a wine that you only get in certain vintages and in very few wines. A great European wine. 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc aged in 80% new oak."

FALSTAFF: "Leuchtendes dunkles Rubingranat, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Floral unterlegte schwarze Waldbeerfrucht, frische Brombeeren, feine Kräuterwürze, Zedernholz, Nuancen von Lakritze, ein Hauch von Vanille. Stoffig und komplex, kraftvolle Textur, schwarze Kirschen, feine Süße, seidige Tannine, ungemeine Länge, verfügt über eine tolle Frische und Salzigkeit, sicheres Reifepotenzial."

WINE SPECTATOR: "This pulls it all together, with a gorgeous core of creamed plum, blackberry and boysenberry confiture notes, laced with singed anise and incense accents and backed by long echoes of anise and black tea. Delivers ample flesh from start to finish, and should easily finish soaking up its toast with some time in the cellar. Best from 2023 through 2038."