Clos Fourtet 2016

Professional Ratings

• 97 James Suckling

  Love the dark-berry and intense black-olive and chocolate aromas that follow through to a full body and firm and chewy tannins that deliver a rich and delicious finish. Such polish and, at the same time, finesse. But one of the cellar. A blend of 90 per cent merlot, seven per cent cabernet sauvignon and three per cent cabernet franc. Try from 2022.

• 97 Jeb Dunnuck
  One of the gems in the vintage that should be snatched up by readers is the 2016 Château Clos Fourtet. Coming from a magical 20-hectare vineyard located on the upper, limestone-driven plateau just outside Saint-Emilion and a blend of 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 3% Cabernet Franc from small yields of 38 hectoliters per hectare, it spent 16 months in 60% new French oak (and a small portion of the blend saw malo in barrel as well). Its saturated purple color is followed by a monster bouquet of ripe blackberries, cassis, graphite, and crushed rocks, and it picks up more blue fruits, truffle, and limestone minerality with time in the glass. This deep, full-bodied, powerful Saint-Emilion has some similarities to Canon yet is deeper and richer, with a more powerful yet still elegant style. It’s a brilliant bottle of wine to hide for 4-5 years and drink over the following 2-3 decades.
• 96 Wine Enthusiast

  This structured wine shows a classical Bordeaux balance between fruit and acidity on the one hand and tannins and firm structure on the other. It also offers generous black-currant fruit and a fresh aftertaste. Best after 2025. Cellar Selection

• 96 Decanter

  This showcases why Clos Fourtet is such a confident, powerful wine. It gets the balance right between the sappy, saline quality of its limestone terroir and yet reflects the ripeness and flashiness of Merlot that makes St-Émilion such a well loved appellation. Excellent, serious quality, cerebral but sexy. Drinking Window 2027 - 2050

• 95 Wine Spectator
  Lively, with a juicy, mouthfilling mix of loganberry, black currant and bramble flavors pumping through, laced liberally with licorice snap and roasted apple wood notes. Tobacco and savory accents provide detail, while a beautifully fine chalky thread adds length. Best from 2022 through 2038.
• 95 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Clos Fourtet is a little closed to begin, slowly unfurling to reveal notions of warm black cherries, crème de cassis, blackberry compote and dark chocolate with hints of garrigue, bay leaves and cigar box. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a firm yet beautifully ripe frame of fine-grained tannins with a lively line lifting the concentrated, multilayered fruit to a long finish.
• 94 Connoisseurs' Guide

  Merlot is the dominant variety here and accounts for 90% of this lavish, head-turning St.-Émilion’s cepage and imparts an elevated sense of succulence and juicy richness that is hard to miss. While dense and quite full in feel with the structural tannic spine to age famously for years and years, the wine is neither tough nor abrasive and is uncannily refined for the substantial, fully packed offering that it is. Clos Fourtet has been at the top of its game in recent vintages, and the estate’s 2016 bottling is an involving, altogether memorable effort that continues its very impressive winning streak.