Chateau Clerc Milon 2018
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Product Details
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Wine Enthusiast
This opulent wine is as bold with its fruit as with its tannins. The initial velvet texture masks the dense structure that will allow it to age impressively. Blackberry flavors, acidity and intense richness are coming together in a welter of ripe fruits. Drink from 2026.
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Decanter
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. Drinking Window 2026 - 2045
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Château Clerc Milon is one of this vintage's rock stars. TASTING NOTES: This wine excels with outstanding aromas and flavors of black fruit and oak, as well as other indescribable nuances. Give it a few years in the cellar before opening. (Tasted: June 25, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
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.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
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. Rating: 94+
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Wine Spectator
This throws off a lovely stream of violet and cassis aromas and flavors that are sleek and pure in feel, picking up dark cherry, iron and sanguine details along the way. Refined and cellarworthy. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carmenère. Best from 2023 through 2035.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From an estate located on the east side of highway D2 and between Château Lafite and Château Mouton Rothschild, the 2018 Château Clerc Milon is a ripe, sexy, full-bodied Pauillac that brings plenty of richness while still staying reasonably elegant. Blackcurrants, blackberries, smoked earth, new leather, and cedary herbs all flow to an impressively endowed, layered Pauillac with chewy tannins, terrific balance, and a great finish. Based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, brought up in 50% new French oak, this outstanding 2018 needs 4-6 years of bottle age to round into form and will evolve nicely for 20-25 years.
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An 1855 Classified Growth, Château Clerc Milon is in a unique location in Pauillac. Bordering two Classified First Growths, it has 41 hectares (100 acres) of vines in a single sweep, mostly on the beautiful Mousset outcrop overlooking the Gironde. The estuary and its sea breezes moderate temperature variations while the geological formation encourages natural drainage and optimises the vines’ exposure to the sun. The soil comprises deep, sandy gravel over a clay-limestone base which crops out in the eastern part of the estate. The vineyard’s slopes and proximity to the Gironde estuary create a unique topography and microclimate.
The vineyard, mostly comprising plots first planted in the early 20th century, offers a singular genetic heritage and rich biodiversity. It has five grape varieties typical of the region: Cabernet Sauvignon (51.5%), Merlot (37%), Cabernet Franc (8%), Petit Verdot (2%) and Carmenere (1.5%), including a parcel planted in 1947.
Pastourelle de Clerc Milon is the estate’s second wine, in which Merlot predominates.
Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-1988) acquired Château Clerc Milon in 1970. His values and know-how are now embodied in the third generation of the family, represented by Camille and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, who continue to develop Château Clerc Milon with the same enthusiasm and quest for modernity. Thanks to the work carried out over the last 50 years and more, and with the help of a dedicated team endowed with cutting-edge technical facilities, Château Clerc Milon is more than ever a benchmark for excellence in the Médoc.
Château Clerc Milon is a beautifully balanced, elegant and precise wine with considerable ageing potential.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.