2012 Château L'Eglise-Clinet

Community Tasting Notes (15) Avg Score: 94.8 points

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  4/30/2024 - Scapolite Likes this wine: 95 Points

  **Tasted alongside '15 Carmes Haut Brion, PnP**
  
  Deep ruby, purple in colour, opaque in the center, with a wide reddish, translucent rim. There's no bricking whatsoever despite having a bit age. Legs are a bit fat.
  
  Savoury, smoky, and leathery on the nose with the black and blue fruits hiding in the background. Smoke meat, smoke, tobacco, cigar box, graphite, wet earth, forest floor, cocoa, a bit of vanilla, blackberries, blueberries, and black currants.
  
  Smooth and somewhat acidic in the palate on the entry with ample of fine, slightly grippy tannins. Leathery and smoky in the beginning with the black fruits coming out in the mid palate, similar to the nose. Wet earth, smoke, leather, cocoa, espresso, black tea, blackberries, and blueberries. Finish is exceptional with the fruits and slight heat lingering around.
  
  Wow, delicious. Already approach but this can definitely continue to benefit with more age. Can't wait to retaste this a few years from now.

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  11/9/2022 - JonnyG Likes this wine: 92 Points

  2012 Bordeaux After One Decade (Los Olivos, CA): A two-hour slow-ox did this wine a disservice. Still primary and restrained, with an ungenerous nose showing little perfume. Dense black fruit. Very tannic. Hold, or give this a very long decant.

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  6/8/2022 - HowardNZ Likes this wine: 94 Points

  2012 Claret (Right Bank) at the Magnum Society (Wellington, NZ): The cépage is 90% merlot, 10% cabernet franc and the vineyard area is 4.4 ha. The soil profile is gravel and deep clay on iron-rich subsoil with an approximate vine age of 45 years, although some cabernet franc dates back to 1935. Vine density is 6,500 – 8,000 vines/ha. Winemaking takes place in 14 temperature controlled stainless steel vats in sizes from 20 - 72hl. This allows vinification on a parcel-by-parcel basis. The malolactic fermentation is done in the vats. Ageing is for 15-18 months in French oak, 50-80% new.
  
  Château L'Eglise-Clinet was owned by Denis Durantou until his death in 2020. The vineyard has been in the Durantou family since 1882. Originally the family made most of their income from farming and leased the vineyards to a négociant who produced and sold the wine. This changed in 1942 when Pierre Lasserre (owner of Château Clos Rene) was hired by Denis’s grandmother to manage the estate. This continued until 1983, when the then young Denis Durantou took over. Denis renovated, cleaned up and modernised the winery. Concrete vats were relined with epoxy, the dirt floor was replaced with concrete and the temperature-controlled vats introduced.
  
  Purple ruby red colour, almost inky – perhaps the most youthful looking. The nose a little closed and muted and more linear than for the Hosanna or Trotanoy. Graphite, blackberries, ripe plums and dried herbs with traces of charred, barbequed meats, coffee and leather. Also, some oak derived sweet vanilla. In the mouth, this Pomerol was more linear and focussed, and a less expansive flavour profile, than with the other three wines I rated better on the night. But its fine margins. Savoury. Plum, prune and some exotic spice. Powerful, full bodied and seriously structured. Sleek and classy. Refined, precise and firm. In some ways, of the wines tasted, it showed the most room to improve after (say) 10+ years. Great length. Accompanied the meal well. Presently in a very early drinking window.
  
  Me: 4/6 | Group: 3=/6

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  2/20/2022 - kfrench150 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  First from the case. Very very dark magenta purple. Very short transition to limidity at the rim. Black currant, purple plum, blackberry, ink and embers on the nose. Full bodied highly extracted, still lots of tannin and a long, thick and rich finish. Gobs of black currant and blackberry on the palate with some spicebox, ink and graphite. It's all.a out the black fruit with this wine right now. Mostly settled down and integrated, and lots of life ahead of it. Super long, rich fruit on the finish. Residual tingly astringency on the very end from the tannins. Very very good!

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  2/7/2022 - apple1813 Likes this wine: 94 Points

  2012 Château L'Eglise Clinet was incredibly complex, perfumed and polished. The developing Pomerol was clear and deep ruby in colour with some fine sediments. Expressive aromas of ripe black plum, blackberry, violet and spring flowers were accompanied by notes of dark chocolate, cigar box, leather, graphite and a hint of freshly shaved black truffle. It kept improving in the bottle over five hours of consumption.
  
  The mouthfeel was dry and full-bodied, with a medium level of balanced acidity and a high level of plush tannin. Flavours of blueberry and cassis transitioned into tobacco, Oriental spices and saline minerality in a long, delineated finish. The 14.5% alcohol was well-integrated in the depth of complex flavours. The empty bottle weighed 616 grams. Given its structure and improvement in air, it would benefit from another decade of bottle age.
  
  From the information on Jeff Leve's The Wine Cellar Insider website, the 4.4-hectare property is planted to 85% Merlot and almost 15% Cabernet Franc. There is a negligible proportion of Malbec that is gradually being replaced by Cabernet Franc. The wine is aged in 80% new oak barrels for between fifteen and eighteen months.
  
  The 2012 vintage is a challenging vinatge, with damp spring and uneven flowering. The success of L'Eglise Clinet depends on the willingness to harvest the Merlot grapes on a parcel-by-parcel basis over half a month (from 21st September to 4th October), and to wait for the Cabernet Franc to reach phenolic maturity (6th October).

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