Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
One of the best kept secrets in Pomerol is the quality of the wines from Jeremy Chasseuil's tiny estate located between Trotanoy and Latour à Pomerol, just across the street from the Clinet sector. Coming from a 6.32-hectare parcel and a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 Chateau Feytit-Clinet sports a dense purple hue to go with blockbuster aromatics of ripe black cherries, cassis, chocolaty oak, leafy herbs, and damp earth. Full-bodied and concentrated, with remarkable purity and ultra-fine tannins, this utterly brilliant Pomerol will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and will evolve for 20-25 years or more if well-stored.
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Vinous
The 2020 Feytit-Clinet is one of the most compelling wines in Pomerol, or all of Bordeaux, for that matter. Blackberry jam, crème de cassis, chocolate, espresso, lavender, licorice and gravel race across the palate. Explosive and powerful to the core, the 2020 is endowed with tons of pedigree. The tannins are incisive, as they so often are, but also impeccably balanced. What a wine! Tasted two times. –Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Feytit Clinet is a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, coming in at 14.8% alcohol and a pH of 3.7. Harvest took place September 11–28 and yields were 42 hectoliters per hectare. The wine is being aged in French oak barrels, 70% new.
Deep purple-black colored, it storms out of the glass, shouting bold notes of plum preserves, blueberry pie and stewed cherries, before giving way to quiet whispers of Indian spices, potpourri, licorice and rose oil. The full-bodied palate is packed with muscular black fruits and a firm texture of ripe, rounded tannins, contrasted by lovely freshness and loads of alluring exotic spice layers, lingering long into the layered finish. A beautifully constructed paradox, this is a very smart, stylish Feytit-Clinet! Barrel Sample: 94-96
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James Suckling
A deep, concentrated Pomerol charged with plush blackberries, iodine, cocoa beans and dark mushrooms. The full-bodied palate delivers lots of velvety tannins that melt away with the fruit in quite a long, seamless finish. Almost plush and hedonistic, but layered and intriguingly complex, with round, medium acidity.
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Decanter
Inky plum with violet edging, this is deep and muscular, pretty intense with bitter chocolate and powerful coffee bean flavours, full on and broad shouldered. This is big but it eats its alcohol and has a lovely balance.
Barrel Sample: 94
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.
A source of exceptionally sensual and glamorous red wines, Pomerol is actually a rather small appellation in an unassuming countryside. It sits on a plateau immediately northeast of the city of Libourne on the right bank of the Dordogne River. Pomerol and St-Émilion are the stars of what is referred to as Right Bank Bordeaux: Merlot-dominant red blends completed by various amounts of Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. While Pomerol has no official classification system, its best wines are some of the world’s most sought after.
Historically Pomerol attached itself to the larger and more picturesque neighboring region of St-Émilion until the late 1800s when discerning French consumers began to recognize the quality and distinction of Pomerol on its own. Its popularity spread to northern Europe in the early 1900s.
After some notable vintages of the 1940s, the Pomerol producer, Petrus, began to achieve great international attention and brought widespread recognition to the appellation. Its subsequent distribution by the successful Libourne merchant, Jean-Pierre Mouiex, magnified Pomerol's fame after the Second World War.
Perfect for Merlot, the soils of Pomerol—clay on top of well-drained subsoil—help to create wines capable of displaying an unprecedented concentration of color and flavor.
The best Pomerol wines will be intensely hued, with qualities of fresh wild berries, dried fig or concentrated black plum preserves. Aromas may be of forest floor, sifted cocoa powder, anise, exotic spice or toasted sugar and will have a silky, smooth but intense texture.