2016 Château Clos de Sarpe

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 92 points

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  2/7/2024 - camdawg Likes this wine: 91 Points

  I usually enjoy Crus Bourgeois level Bordeaux, although that doesn't apply as much to Right Bank wines.
  
  Why do I seek them out? I like to have something different, maybe something rough and tumble about them, compared to California or Washington Cabernet and Merlot based wines.
  
  What does this wine present that's different than smoother North American wines? On the nose, as I transitioned from red to black fruit, I got some hints of eucalyptus and forest floor to go along with the hints of oak.
  
  On the palate, the tannins seemed more substantial, and harder to cut through than West Coast American Bordeaux varietals. You still get good fruit, but the tannic finish is more palate drying than what you'd expect from the majority of modern day Napa.
  
  If you want a red wine with your steak or lamb that will have a memorable presence, you should give this one a chance.

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  9/11/2023 - Zweder Likes this wine: 92 Points

  St. Emilion Grand Cru Classés Walkaround tasting, so just short notes (Amsterdam): Beautiful dark berries, sweet licorice, soft acidity and powdery tannin. Good length. In its young maturity stage and a beautiful wine.

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  11/28/2021 - Andybe wrote: 91 Points

  Still dense etc.. But doesn’t give the structure and feel of a refined Bordeaux. This fruitbomb as it is does remind me more of a good languedock. Takes another 5 years to overcome the density.

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  9/21/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote: 93 Points

  Concentrated, dense, stony and fresh, with a deep core of ripe, salty plums. The fruit has a spicy quality, with polished tannins and the structure to age, But this is not a user-friendly wine for early drinking. You will need to give it at least 12 years for everything to come together, but it is going to be worth the wait. The wine was made from a blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc.

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  4/29/2017 - Jeff Leve wrote: 93 Points

  Deeply colored, this powerful, dense, rich and intense wine combines concentration and mouth-coating levels of fruit and acidity with ripe, dark red fruits and citrus in the endnote. The wine was made from a blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, reaching 15.5% with a pH of 3.3. Currently aging in 60% new French oak barrels, this is a change in the maturation process, as the previous vintages were aged in 100% new oak.

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