Château Clerc Milon - Pauillac 2018 (750ml)
Price: $140.00
| Producer | Château Clerc Milon |
| Country | France |
| Region | Bordeaux |
| Subregion | Pauillac |
| Varietal | Bordeaux Blend |
| Vintage | 2018 |
| Sku | 1005622 |
| Size | 750ml |
Wine Spectator: 96 Points
This is well-built, with a sleek and persistent structure carrying energetic cassis, damson plum, violet and iron notes. Offers a long, pure, almost chiseled finish. A strong showing.
Decanter: 96 Points
By Jane Anson Bordeaux in bottle 2018 11/10/2020 (See more on Decanter...)96 points (Château Clerc Milon Pauillac Bordeaux France Red) This is an extremely successful Clerc Milon in a run of great vintages at the property. Lovely purity clear big tannins and real poise and tension. Persistent succulent full of cassis liquorice and crushed mint. Seriously impressive and will go the distance. Harvest from 17 September to 10 October. Blend completed by 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Carmenère. (Drink between 2026-2045) By Jane Anson Bordeaux En Primeur 2018 Pauillac 4/4/2019 (See more on Decanter...)96 points (Château Clerc Milon Pauillac Red) The progression of this property continues to be evident in the glass with a beautiful classicism full of life and layers comprising dark spice and touches of black pepper against blueberry and cool fruits pumped up by black chocolate and liquorice.
It?s confident and clearly has a fierce quality to the tannins giving a long life ahead of it. The harvest started on September 17 one week later than Mouton because of its cooler terroir with the blend completed by 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Carmanère.
This is the last vintage with Jean-Emmanuel Donjoy at the helm as he?s making his way over to Mouton-Rothschild to work alongside Philippe Dhalluin. A tough gig to turn down of course but I will miss the work he has done here and look forward to seeing what his successor will add. (Drink between 2026-2040)
Jane Anson: 96 Points
If you haven't checked back in with Clerc Milon recently this is the vintage to see what they have been doing. Real purity to the fruit character this is Pauillac blackcurrant and blackberry hawthorn and hedegrow liqouorice eucalyptus and crushed mint leaf. Poised and confient and ready to go long. Harvest from 17 September to 10 October. Such excellent winemaking from Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy (now over at sibling estate Mouton Rothschild). 50% new oak.
dJames Suckling: 95 Points
Blackcurrants tobacco graphite cloves and dried leaves on the nose. It?s medium-to full-bodied with firm tightly knit tannins. Structured and compact with a long mineral finish. Tight and austere. Very pretty structure here. Wait until 2025.
Wine Enthusiast: 94 Points
This spicy wine has an undertone of oak that adds to the richness. While there is a dense blackberry flavor, the bright acidity shines through to lighten it up. It's a fine wine with plenty of aging potential.
Wine Advocate: 94+ Points
The 2018 Clerc Milon is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon 27% Merlot 9% Cabernet Franc 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Carménère. Medium to deep garnet-purple in color it has a very pure beautifully delineated nose of crushed blackcurrants fresh black plums and boysenberries with hints of wild thyme damp soil tar and black olives. The medium to full-bodied palate offers taut muscular black fruit with loads of savory layers and a firm grainy texture finishing long and mineral tinged. ?We only suffered 2% loss due to mildew in 2018? Managing Director Philippe Dhalluin informed me. ?But we had low yields on all the deep gravelly soils because of the dry period more so at Mouton than at Clerc Milon. Clerc Milon has three meters of gravel before you get to the clay and limestone that holds the water. At Mouton there are six meters of gravel before you get to the clay and limestone.? This made for yields of 28 hectoliters per hectare at Mouton Rothschild while Clerc Milon came in at 32 hectoliters per hectare and the average for Pauillac was around 38 hectoliters per hectare. ?In late September it was still hot during the days around 32 degrees Celsius but the night temperatures dropped down to around seven degrees to allow the ripening to slow down? Dhalluin said explaining how the berries made it over that magic finish line to full phenolic (tannin) ripeness. All the Baron Philippe de Rothschild 2018 wines were blended early from the end of November through early December because the ferments went quite quickly. A lot of Merlot went into the second wines this year. Dhalluin commented that the Merlots were amazing this year but Cabernet was even better. Published: Mar 31 2021
