Chateau Clinet, Pomerol 2018

Including slightly more Cabernet Sauvignon than usual, the 2018 Château Clinet is 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon brought up in 75% new French oak.

One of the superstars of the vintage, it has incredible elegance and finesse as well as gorgeous richness and depth. Notes of cassis and truffly dark fruits, as well as tobacco, damp earth, chocolate, and lead pencil shavings, emerge from the glass, and it's full-bodied, with a seamless, multi-dimensional texture, gorgeous tannins, and a great, great finish. It already offers incredible pleasure but won't hit maturity for another 5-7 years and should evolve for 30 years or more. This magical wine is in the same league as the 2015 and 2016, and drinking these beauties over the coming decades will be an incredible treat.

Drink 2021 - 2031

38hl/h yield. 75% new oak barrels for ageing.

Higher Cabernet Sauvignon than usual because of the early season frost, giving a blend that nods back to 19th-century Clinet, where Cabernet was up to 50% of the plantings. There is plenty of depth and chewy, almost sticky tannins, well-textured black cherry fruits, cocoa bean, graphite and a slate-filled texture that pulls it all back into shape.

Drink 2026 - 2044

The 2018 Clinet is a blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged for approximately 16 months in French oak barriques, 75% new.

Deep garnet-purple coloured, the nose is locked down tight at first sniff, requiring a good amount of air to begin to reveal profound notions of stewed black plums, mulberries and black cherry compote, plus hints of black truffles, damp soil, tobacco leaf and chargrill with an emerging waft of cedar. The full-bodied palate is a full-on volcano of black fruit and molten rock waiting to erupt, with a solid frame of firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing with amazing length. A lot is happening here, but it is a wine for the patient. Give it a good 5-7 years in bottle, at least, and drink it over the next 30+ years.

Drink 2026 - 2056

Blackberries and blueberries with subtle black chocolate and violets on the nose, followed by a full-bodied palate with polished, creamy tannins. It has a beautiful balance and a really refined texture.

Drink after 2024, but it's already so gorgeous.

The 2018 Client, which was cropped at 38hl/ha, has an exquisite bouquet of lavish black cherry and raspberry fruit, and still, those bunches of violets I observed from barrel, flanked by potpourri. The aromatics are well-defined, and the new oak is seamlessly integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit. It had firmed up since I tasted it in barrel when I noted that it felt like a "muscular" Clinet in the making. That trait is emphasised in bottle, and those accustomed to the more hedonistic Clinets of yore might find it a tad more reserved and drier. But it is a style that suits it well. White pepper leaves the mouth tingling after it has departed, the fitting conclusion to a superb – dare I say cerebral? – Clinet that has a long and prosperous future.

Drink 2023 - 2045

The 2018 Clinet is a powerful, reticent wine that will need at least a few years in bottle to become approachable. Today, the tannins are especially forbidding. Inky dark red fruit, iron, cedar, mint, liquorice, and dried herbs give Clinet its signature profile marked by savoury Cabernet Sauvignon aromas and flavours. This is a terrific showing from Clinet and proprietor Ronan Laborde.

Drink 2026 - 2038