Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Gorgeous currants and spices with licorice on the nose. Full body, with super integrated tannins and a long, long finish. The texture and beautiful fruit just wants you to drink this. Give it time but hard to wait.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet colored, the 2010 Clerc Milon rolls effortlessly out of the glass with open-knit scents of baked black cherries, blackberry preserves and crème de cassis with hints of leather, unsmoked cigars and dried sage with a waft of pencil lead. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with concentrated black fruits and framed by firm, grainy tannins and tons of freshness, finishing long with great purity.
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Wine Enthusiast
Confirming its place in the firmament of Pauillac greats, Clerc Milon's 2010 has huge density, and is packed with dark tannins and blackberry flavor. It has a delicious freshness that cuts right through, lifting the concentration. With its tannins, this promises long-term aging.
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Wine Spectator
Rock-solid, with layers of baker's chocolate and espresso lining the steeped plum and blackberry fruit flavors while intense charcoal fills in on the hefty finish. Backward now, but showing excellent intensity and dark fruit, with a tug of singed iron on the finish. Best from 2018 through 2030.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Well, this is how the story goes, I fell asleep in a vineyard along Highway 29 in the Napa Valley and when I awoke, I was sipping a glass of 2010 Château Clerc Milon on highway D2 in Bordeaux. While the best Napa Valley Cabernets are always taking me on a Cabernet joyride their similarities to Bordeaux are unmistakable. This wine is so delicious that everyone will find pleasure here. Medium to deep ruby color; thrilling and rich in the nose with black fruit, sweet barrel and smoky earth; medium bodied and lavishly layered on the palate; plenty of black fruits and sweet toast in the flavors; long and sumptuous in the finish. (Tasted: April 28, 2014, San Francisco, CA
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.